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Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim

                       AUTHOR'S NOTE

  When this novel first appeared in book form a notion got about
that I had been bolted away with. Some reviewers maintained that
the work starting as a short story had got beyond the writer's con-
trol. One or two discovered internal evidence of the fact, which
seemed to amuse them. They pointed out the limitations of the
narrative form. They argued that no man could have been expected
to talk all that time, and other men to listen so long. It was not,
they said, very credible.
  After thinking it over for something like sixteen years, I am not
so sure about that. Men have been known, both in the tropics and
in the temperate zone, to sit up half the night 'swapping yarns'.
This, however, is but one yarn, yet with interruptions affording
some measure of relief; and in regard to the listeners' endurance,
the postulate must be accepted that the story was interesting. It is
the necessary preliminary assumption. If I hadn't believed that it
was interesting I could never have begun to write it. As to the mere
physical possibility we all know that some speeches in Parliament
have taken nearer six than three hours in delivery; whereas all that
part of the book which is Marlow's narrative can be read through
aloud, I should say, in less than three hours. Besides -- though I
have kept strictly all such insignificant details out of the tale -- we
may presume that there must have been refreshments on that night,
a glass of mineral water of some sort to help the narrator on.
  But, seriously, the truth of the matter is, that my first thought
was of a short story, concerned only with the pilgrim ship episode;
nothing more. And that was a legitimate conception. After writing
a few pages, however, I became for some reason discontented and
I laid them aside for a time. I didn't take them out of the drawer till
the late Mr. William Blackwood suggested I should give something
again to his magazine.
  It was only then that I perceived that the pilgrim ship episode
was a good starting-point for a free and wandering tale; that it was
an event, too, which could conceivably colour the whole 'sentiment
of existence' in a simple and sensitive character. But all these pre-
liminary moods and stirrings of spirit were rather obscure at the
time, and they do not appear clearer to me now after the lapse of so
many years.
  The few pages I had laid aside were not without their weight in
the choice of subject. But the whole was re-written deliberately.
When I sat down to it I knew it would be a long book, though I
didn't foresee that it would spread itsetlf over thirteen numbers of
'Maga'.
  I have been asked at times whether this was not the book of mine
I liked best. I am a great foe to favouritism in public life, in private
life, and even in the delicate relationsbip of an author to his works.
As a matter of principle I will have no favourites; but I don't go so
far as to feel grieved and annoyed by the preference some people
give to my Lord Jim. I won't even say that I 'fail to understand . . .'
No! But once I had occasion to be puzzled and surprised.
  A friend of mine returning from Italy had talked with a lady there
who did not like the book. I regretted that, of course, but what
surprised me was the ground of her dlslike. 'You know,' she said,
'it is all so morbid.'
  The pronouncement gave me food for an hour's anxious thought.
Finally I arrived at the conclusion that, making due allowances for
the subject itself being rather foreign to women's normal sensibili-
ties, the lady could not have been an Italian. I wonder whether she
was European at all? In any case, no Latin temperament would
have perceived anything morbid in the acute consciousness of lost
honour. Such a consciousness may be wrong, or it may be right, or
it may be condemned as artificial; and, perhaps, my Jim is not a
type of wide commonness. But I can safely assure my readers that
he is not the product of coldly perverted thinking. He's not a figure
of Northern Mists either. One sunny morning, in the commonplace
surroundings of an Eastern roadstead, I saw his form pass by -
appealing - significant - under a cloud - perfectly silent. Which is
as it should be. It was for me, with all the sympathy of which I was
capable, to seek fit words for his meaning. He was 'one of us'.
                                                           J.C.
                                                          1917.

                          LORD JIM

                          CHAPTER 1

  He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and
he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders,
head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think
of a charging bull. His voice was deep, loud, and his manner dis-
played a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive
in it. It seemed a necessity, and it was directed apparently as much
at himself as at anybody else. He was spotlessly neat, apparelled in
immaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern
ports where he got his living as ship-chandler's water-clerk he was
very popular.
  A water-clerk need not pass an examination in anything under
the sun, but he must have Ability in the abstract and demonstrate
it practically. His work consists in racing under sail, steam, or oars
against other water-clerks for any ship about to anchor, greeting
her captain cheerily, forcing upon him a card -- the business card
of the ship-chandler -- and on his first visit on shore piloting him
firmly but without ostentation to a vast, cavern-like shop which is
full of things that are eaten and drunk on board ship; where you
can get everything to make her seaworthy and beautiful, from a set
of chain-hooks for her cable to a book of gold-leaf for the carvings
of her stern; and where her commander is received like a brother
by a ship-chandler he has never seen before. There is a cool parlour,
easy-chairs, bottles, cigars, writing implements, a copy of harbour
regulations, and a warmth of welcome that melts the salt of a three
months' passage out of a seaman's heart. The connection thus begun
is kept up, as long as the ship remains in harbour, by the daily visits
of the water-clerk. To the captain he is faithful like a friend and
attentive like a son, with the patience of Job, the unselfish devotion
of a woman, and the jollity of a boon companion. Later on the bill
is sent in. It is a beautiful and humane occupation. Therefore good
water-clerks are scarce. When a water-clerk who possesses Ability
in the abstract has also the advantage of having been brought up
to the sea, he is worth to his employer a lot of money and some
humouring. Jim had always good wages and as much humouring
as would have bought the fidelity of a fiend. Nevertheless, with
black ingratitude he would throw up the job suddenly and depart.
To his employers the reasons he gave were obviously inadequate.
They said 'Confounded fool!' as soon as his back was turned. This
was their criticism on his exquisite sensibility.
  To the white men in the waterside business and to the captains
of ships he was just Jim -- nothing more. He had, of course, another
name, but he was anxious that it should not be pronounced. His
incognito, which had as many holes as a sieve, was not meant to
hide a personality but a fact. When the fact broke through the
incognito he would leave suddenly the seaport where he happened
to be at the time and go to another -- generally farther east. He kept
to seaports because he was a seaman in exile from the sea, and had
Ability in the abstract, which is good for no other work but that of
a water-clerk. He retreated in good order towards the rising sun,
and the fact followed him casually but inevitably. Thus in the course
of years he was known successively in Bombay, in Calcutta, in
Rangoon, in Penang, in Batavia -- and in each of these halting-
places was just Jim the water-clerk. Afterwards, when his keen
perception of the Intolerable drove him away for good from seaports
and white men, even into the virgin forest, the Malays of the jungle
village, where he had elected to conceal his deplorable faculty,
added a word to the monosyllable of his incognito. They called him
Tuan Jim: as one might say -- Lord Jim.
  Originally he came from a parsonage. Many commanders of fine
merchant-ships come from these abodes of piety and peace. Jim's
father possessed such certain knowledge of the Unknowable as
made for the righteousness of people in cottages without disturbing
the ease of mind of those whom an unerring Providence enables to
live in mansions. The little church on a hill had the mossy greyness
of a rock seen through a ragged screen of leaves. It had stood there
for centuries, but the trees around probably remembered the laying
of the first stone. Below, the red front of the rectory gleamed with
a warm tint in the midst of grass-plots, flower-beds, and fir-trees,
with an orchard at the back, a paved stable-yard to the left, and the
sloping glass of greenhouses tacked along a wall of bricks. The
living had belonged to the family for generations; but Jim was one
of five sons, and when after a course of light holiday literature his
vocation for the sea had declared itself, he was sent at once to a
'training-ship for officers of the mercantile marine.'
  He learned there a little trigonometry and how to cross top-gallant
yards. He was generally liked. He had the third place in navigation
and pulled stroke in the first cutter. Having a steady head with an
excellent physique, he was very smart aloft. His station was in the
fore-top, and often from there he looked down, with the contempt
of a man destined to shine in the midst of dangers, at the peaceful
multitude of roofs cut in two by the brown tide of the stream,
while scattered on the outskirts of the surrounding plain the factory
chimneys rose perpendicular against a grimy sky, each slender like
a pencil, and belching out smoke like a volcano. He could see the
big ships departing, the broad-beamed ferries constantly on the
move, the little boats floating far below his feet, with the hazy
splendour of the sea in the distance, and the hope of a stirring life
in the world of adventure.
  On the lower deck in the babel of two hundred voices he would
forget himself, and beforehand live in his mind the sea-life of light
literature. He saw himself saving people from sinking ships, cutting
away masts in a hurricane, swimming through a surf with a line;
or as a lonely castaway, barefooted and half naked, walking on
uncovered reefs in search of shellfish to stave off starvation. He
confronted savages on tropical shores, quelled mutinies on the high
seas, and in a small boat upon the ocean kept up the hearts of
despairing men -- always an example of devotion to duty, and as
unflinching as a hero in a book.
  'Something's up. Come along.'
  He leaped to his feet. The boys were streaming up the ladders.
Above could be heard a great scurrying about and shouting, and
when he got through the hatchway he stood still -- as if confounded.
  It was the dusk of a winter's day. The gale had freshened since
noon, stopping the traffic on the river, and now blew with the
strength of a hurricane in fitful bursts that boomed like salvoes of
great guns firing over the ocean. The rain slanted in sheets that
flicked and subsided, and between whiles Jim had threatening
glimpses of the tumbling tide, the small craft jumbled and tossing
along the shore, the motionless buildings in the driving mist, the
broad ferry-boats pitching ponderously at anchor, the vast landing-
stages heaving up and down and smothered in sprays. The next
gust seemed to blow all this away. The air was full of flying water.
There was a fierce purpose in the gale, a furious earnestness in the
screech of the wind, in the brutal tumult of earth and sky, that
seemed directed at him, and made him hold his breath in awe. He
stood still. It seemed to him he was whirled around.
  He was jostled. 'Man the cutter!' Boys rushed past him. A coaster
running in for shelter had crashed through a schooner at anchor,
and one of the ship's instructors had seen the accident. A mob of
boys clambered on the rails, clustered round the davits. 'Collision.
Just ahead of us. Mr Symons saw it.' A push made him stagger
against the mizzen-mast, and he caught hold of a rope. The old
training-ship chained to her moorings quivered all over, bowing
gently head to wind, and with her scanty rigging humming in a
deep bass the breathless song of her youth at sea. 'Lower away!' He
saw the boat, manned, drop swiftly below the rail, and rushed after
her. He heard a splash. 'Let go; clear the falls!' He leaned over.
The river alongside seethed in frothy streaks. The cutter could be
seen in the falling darkness under the spell of tide and wind, that
for a moment held her bound, and tossing abreast of the ship. A
yelling voice in her reached him faintly: 'Keep stroke, you young
whelps, if you want to save anybody! Keep stroke!' And suddenly
she lifted high her bow, and, leaping with raised oars over a wave,
broke the spell cast upon her by the wind and tide.
  Jim felt his shoulder gripped firmly. 'Too late, youngster.' The
captain of the ship laid a restraining hand on that boy, who seemed
on the point of leaping overboard, and Jim looked up with the pain
of conscious defeat in his eyes. The captain smiled sympathetically.
'Better luck next time. This will teach you to be smart.'
  A shrill cheer greeted the cutter. She came dancing back half full
of water, and with two exhausted men washing about on her bottom
boards. The tumult and the menace of wind and sea now appeared
very contemptible to Jim, increasing the regret of his awe at their
inefficient menace. Now he knew what to think of it. It seemed to
him he cared nothing for the gale. He could affront greater perils.
He would do so -- better than anybody. Not a particle of fear was
left. Nevertheless he brooded apart that evening while the bowman
of the cutter -- a boy with a face like a girl's and big grey eyes -- was
the hero of the lower deck. Eager questioners crowded round him.
He narrated: 'I just saw his head bobbing, and I dashed my boat-
hook in the water. It caught in his breeches and I nearly went
overboard, as I thought I would, only old Symons let go the tiller
and grabbed my legs -- the boat nearly swamped. Old Symons is a
fine old chap. l don't mind a bit him being grumpy with us. He
swore at me all the time he held my leg, but that was only his way
of telling me to stick to the boat-hook. Old Symons is awfully
excitable -- isn't he? No -- not the little fair chap -- the other, the big
one with a beard. When we pulled him in he groaned, "Oh, my leg!
oh, my leg!" and turned up his eyes. Fancy such a big chap fainting
like a girl. Would any of you fellows faint for a jab with a boat-
hook? -- I wouldn't. It went into his leg so far.' He showed the boat-
hook, which he had carried below for the purpose, and produced a
sensation. 'No, silly! It was not his flesh that held him -- his breeches
did. Lots of blood, of course.'
  Jim thought it a pitiful display of vanity. The gale had ministered
to a heroism as spurious as its own pretence of terror. He felt angry
with the brutal tumult of earth and sky for taking him unawares
and checking unfairly a generous readiness for narrow escapes.
Otherwise he was rather glad he had not gone into the cutter, since
a lower achievement had served the turn. He had enlarged his
knowledge more than those who had done the work. When all men
flinched, then -- he felt sure -- he alone would know how to deal
with the spurious menace of wind and seas. He knew what to think
of it. Seen dispassionately, it seemed contemptible. He could detect
no trace of emotion in himself, and the final effect of a staggering
event was that, unnoticed and apart from the noisy crowd of boys,
he exulted with fresh certitude in his avidity for adventure, and in
a sense of many-sided courage.

                      CHAPTER 2

  After two years of training he went to sea, and entering the
regions so well known to his imagination, found them strangely
barren of adventure. He made many voyages. He knew the magic
monotony of existence between sky and water: he had to bear the
criticism of men, the exactions of the sea, and the prosaic severity
of the daily task that gives bread -- but whose only reward is in the
perfect love of the work. This reward eluded him. Yet he could not
go back, because there is nothing more enticing, disenchanting,
and enslaving than the life at sea. Besides, his prospects were good.
He was gentlemanly, steady, tractable, with a thorough knowledge
of his duties; and in time, when yet very young, he became chief
mate of a fine ship, without ever having been tested by those events
of the sea that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man,
the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the
quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not
only to others but also to himself.
  Only once in all that time he had again a glimpse of the earnest-
ness in the anger of the sea. That truth is not so often made apparent
as people might think. There are many shades in the danger of
adventures and gales, and it is only now and then that there appears
on the face of facts a sinister violence of intention -- that indefinable
something which forces it upon the mind and the heart of a man,
that this complication of accidents or these elemental furies are
coming at him with a purpose of malice, with a strength beyond
control, with an unbridled cruelty that means to tear out of him his
hope and his fear, the pain of his fatigue and his longing for rest:
which means to smash, to destroy, to annihilate all he has seen,
known, loved, enjoyed, or hated; all that is priceless and necessary --
the sunshine, the memories, the future; which means to sweep the
whole precious world utterly away from his sight by the simple and
appalling act of taking his life.
  Jim, disabled by a falling spar at the beginning of a week of which
his Scottish captain used to say afterwards, 'Man! it's a pairfect
meeracle to me how she lived through it!' spent many days stretched
on his back, dazed, battered, hopeless, and tormented as if at the
bottom of an abyss of unrest. He did not care what the end would
be, and in his lucid moments overvalued his indifference. The
danger, when not seen, has the imperfect vagueness of human
thought. The fear grows shadowy; and Imagination, the enemy of
men, the father of all terrors, unstimulated, sinks to rest in the
dullness of exhausted emotion. Jim saw nothing but the disorder of
his tossed cabin. He lay there battened down in the midst of a small
devastation, and felt secretly glad he had not to go on deck. But
now and again an uncontrollable rush of anguish would grip him
bodily, make him gasp and writhe under the blankets, and then the
unintelligent brutality of an existence liable to the agony of such
sensations filled him with a despairing desire to escape at any cost.
Then fine weather returned, and he thought no more about It.
  His lameness, however, persisted, and when the ship arrived at
an Eastern port he had to go to the hospital. His recovery was slow,
and he was left behind.
  There were only two other patients in the white men's ward: the
purser of a gunboat, who had broken his leg falling down a hatch-
way; and a kind of railway contractor from a neighbouring province,
afflicted by some mysterious tropical disease, who held the doctor
for an ass, and indulged in secret debaucheries of patent medicine
which his Tamil servant used to smuggle in with unwearied devo-
tion. They told each other the story of their lives, played cards a
little, or, yawning and in pyjamas, lounged through the day in easy-
chairs without saying a word. The hospital stood on a hill, and a
gentle breeze entering through the windows, always flung wide
open, brought into the bare room the softness of the sky, the languor
of the earth, the bewitching breath of the Eastern waters. There
were perfumes in it, suggestions of infinite repose, the gift of endless
dreams. Jim looked every day over the thickets of gardens, beyond
the roofs of the town, over the fronds of palms growing on the
shore, at that roadstead which is a thoroughfare to the East, -- at
the roadstead dotted by garlanded islets, lighted by festal sunshine,
its ships like toys, its brilliant activity resembling a holiday pageant,
with the eternal serenity of the Eastern sky overhead and the smiling
peace of the Eastern seas possessing the space as far as the horizon.
  Directly he could walk without a stick, he descended into the
town to look for some opportunity to get home. Nothing offered
just then, and, while waiting, he associated naturally with the men
of his calling in the port. These were of two kinds. Some, very few
and seen there but seldom, led mysterious lives, had preserved an
undefaced energy with the temper of buccaneers and the eyes of
dreamers. They appeared to live in a crazy maze of plans, hopes,
dangers, enterprises, ahead of civilisation, in the dark places of the
sea; and their death was the only event of their fantastic existence
that seemed to have a reasonable certitude of achievement. The
majority were men who, like himself, thrown there by some acci-
dent, had remained as officers of country ships. They had now a
horror of the home service, with its harder conditions, severer view
of duty, and the hazard of stormy oceans. They were attuned to the
eternal peace of Eastern sky and sea. They loved short passages,
good deck-chairs, large native crews, and the distinction of being
white. They shuddered at the thought of hard work, and led precari-
ously easy lives, always on the verge of dismissal, always on the
verge of engagement, serving Chinamen, Arabs, half-castes -- would
have served the devil himself had he made it easy enough. They
talked everlastingly of turns of luck: how So-and-so got charge of a
boat on the coast of China -- a soft thing; how this one had an
easy billet in Japan somewhere, and that one was doing well in the
Siamese navy; and in all they said -- in their actions, in their looks,
in their persons -- could be detected the soft spot, the place of decay,
the determination to lounge safely through existence.
  To Jim that gossiping crowd, viewed as seamen, seemed at first
more unsubstantial than so many shadows. But at length he found
a fascination in the sight of those men, in their appearance of doing
so well on such a small allowance of danger and toil. In time, beside
the original disdain there grew up slowly another sentiment; and
suddenly, giving up the idea of going home, he took a berth as chief
mate of the Patna.
  The Patna was a local steamer as old as the hills, lean like a
greyhound, and eaten up with rust worse than a condemned water-
tank. She was owned by a Chinaman, chartered by an Arab, and
commanded by a sort of renegade New South Wales German, very
anxious to curse publicly his native country, but who, apparently
on the strength of Bismarck's victorious policy, brutalised all those
he was not afraid of, and wore a 'blood-and-iron' air,' combined
with a purple nose and a red moustache. After she had been painted
outside and whitewashed inside, eight hundred pilgrims (more or
less) were driven on board of her as she lay with steam up alongside
a wooden jetty.
  They streamed aboard over three gangways, they streamed in
urged by faith and the hope of paradise, they streamed in with a
continuous tramp and shuffle of bare feet, without a word, a mur-
mur, or a look back; and when clear of confining rails spread on all
sides over the deck, flowed forward and aft, overflowed down the
yawning hatchways, filled the inner recesses of the ship -- like water
filling a cistern, like water flowing into crevices and crannies, like
water rising silently even with the rim. Eight hundred men and
women with faith and hopes, with affections and memories, they
had collected there, coming from north and south and from the
outskirts of the East, after treading the jungle paths, descending
the rivers, coasting in praus along the shallows, crossing in small
canoes from island to island, passing through suffering, meeting
strange sights, beset by strange fears, upheld by one desire. They
came from solitary huts in the wilderness, from populous cam-
pongs, from villages by the sea. At the call of an idea they had left
their forests, their clearings, the protection of their rulers, their
prosperity, their poverty, the surroundings of their youth and the
graves of their fathers. They came covered with dust, with sweat,
with grime, with rags -- the strong men at the head of family parties,
the lean old men pressing forward without hope of return; young
boys with fearless eyes glancing curiously, shy little girls with tum-
bled long hair; the timid women muffled up and clasping to their
breasts, wrapped in loose ends of soiled head-cloths, their sleeping
babies, the unconscious pilgrims of an exacting belief.
  'Look at dese cattle,' said the German skipper to his new chief
mate.
  An Arab, the leader of that pious voyage, came last. He walked
slowly aboard, handsome and grave in his white gown and large
turban. A string of servants followed, loaded with his luggage; the
Patna cast off and backed away from the wharf.
  She was headed between two small islets, crossed obliquely the
anchoring-ground of sailing-ships, swung through half a circle in
the shadow of a hill, then ranged close to a ledge of foaming reefs.
The Arab, standing up aft, recited aloud the prayer of travellers by
sea. He invoked the favour of the Most High upon that journey,
implored His blessing on men's toil and on the secret purposes of
their hearts; the steamer pounded in the dusk the calm water of the
Strait; and far astern of the pilgrim ship a screw-pile lighthouse,
planted by unbelievers on a treacherous shoal, seemed to wink at
her its eye of flame, as if in derision of her errand of faith.
  She cleared the Strait, crossed the bay, continued on her way
through the 'One-degree' passage. She held on straight for the Red
Sea under a serene sky, under a sky scorching and unclouded,
enveloped in a fulgor of sunshine that killed all thought, oppressed
the heart, withered all impulses of strength and energy. And under
the sinister splendour of that sky the sea, blue and profound,
remained still, without a stir, without a ripple, without a wrinkle --
viscous, stagnant, dead. The Patna, with a slight hiss, passed over
that plain, luminous and smooth, unrolled a black ribbon of smoke
across the sky, left behind her on the water a white ribbon of foam
that vanished at once, like the phantom of a track drawn upon a
lifeless sea by the phantom of a steamer.
  Every morning the sun, as if keeping pace in his revolutions with
the progress of the pilgrimage, emerged with a silent burst of light
exactly at the same distance astern of the ship, caught up with her
at noon, pouring the concentrated fire of his rays on the pious
purposes of the men, glided past on his descent, and sank mysteri-
ously into the sea evening after evening, preserving the same dis-
tance ahead of her advancing bows. The five whites on board lived
amidships, isolated from the human cargo. The awnings covered
the deck with a white roof from stem to stern, and a faint hum, a
low murmur of sad voices, alone revealed the presence of a crowd
of people upon the great blaze of the ocean. Such were the days,
still, hot, heavy, disappearing one by one into the past, as if falling
into an abyss for ever open in the wake of the ship; and the ship,
lonely under a wisp of smoke, held on her steadfast way black and
smouldering in a luminous immensity, as if scorched by a flame
flicked at her from a heaven without pity.
  The nights descended on her like a benediction.

                        CHAPTER 3

  A marvellous stillness pervaded the world, and the stars, together
with the serenity of their rays, seemed to shed upon the earth the
assurance of everlasting security. The young moon recurved, and
shining low in the west, was like a slender shaving thrown up from
a bar of gold, and the Arabian Sea, smooth and cool to the eye like
a sheet of ice, extended its perfect level to the perfect circle of a
dark horizon. The propeller turned without a check, as though its
beat had been part of the scheme of a safe universe; and on each
side of the Patna two deep folds of water, permanent and sombre
on the unwrinkled shimmer, enclosed within their straight and
diverging ridges a few white swirls of foam bursting in a low hiss,
a few wavelets, a few ripples, a few undulations that, left behind,
agitated the surface of the sea for an instant after the passage of the
ship, subsided splashing gently, calmed down at last into the circu-
lar stillness of water and sky with the black speck of the moving
hull remaining everlastingly in its centre.
  Jim on the bridge was penetrated by the great certitude of
unbounded safety and peace that could be read on the silent aspect
of nature like the certitude of fostering love upon the placid tender-
ness of a mother's face. Below the roof of awnings, surrendered to
the wisdom of white men and to their courage, trusting the power
of their unbelief and the iron shell of their fire-ship, the pilgrims of
an exacting faith slept on mats, on blankets, on bare planks, on
every deck, in all the dark corners, wrapped in dyed cloths, muffled
in soiled rags, with their heads resting on small bundles, with their
faces pressed to bent forearms: the men, the women, the children;
the old with the young, the decrepit with the lusty -- all equal before
sleep, death's brother.
  A draught of air, fanned from forward by the speed of the ship,
passed steadily through the long gloom between the high bulwarks,
swept over the rows of prone bodies; a few dim flames in globe-
lamps were hung short here and there under the ridge-poles, and
in the blurred circles of light thrown down and trembling slightly
to the unceasing vibration of the ship appeared a chin upturned,
two closed eyelids, a dark hand with silver rings, a meagre limb
draped in a torn covering, a head bent back, a naked foot, a throat
bared and stretched as if offering itself to the knife. The well-to-do
had made for their families shelters with heavy boxes and dusty
mats; the poor reposed side by side with all they had on earth tied
up in a rag under their heads; the lone old men slept, with drawn-
up legs, upon their prayer-carpets, with their hands over their ears
and one elbow on each side of the face; a father, his shoulders up
and his knees under his forehead, dozed dejectedly by a boy who
slept on his back with tousled hair and one arm commandingly
extended; a woman covered from head to foot, like a corpse, with
a piece of white sheeting, had a naked child in the hollow of each
arm; the Arab's belongings, piled right aft, made a heavy mound
of broken outlines, with a cargo-lamp swung above, and a great
confusion of vague forms behind: gleams of paunchy brass pots,
the foot-rest of a deck-chair, blades of spears, the straight scabbard
of an old sword leaning against a heap of pillows, the spout of a tin
coffee-pot. The patent log on the taffrail periodically rang a single
tinkling stroke for every mile traversed on an errand of faith. Above
the mass of sleepers a faint and patient sigh at times floated, the
exhalation of a troubled dream; and short metallic clangs bursting
out suddenly in the depths of the ship, the harsh scrape of a shovel,
the violent slam of a furnace-door, exploded brutally, as if the men
handling the mysterious things below had their breasts full of fierce
anger: while the slim high hull of the steamer went on evenly ahead,
without a sway of her bare masts, cleaving continuously the great
calm of the waters under the inaccessible serenity of the sky.
  Jim paced athwart, and his footsteps in the vast silence were loud
to his own ears, as if echoed by the watchful stars: his eyes, roaming
about the line of the horizon, seemed to gaze hungrily into the
unattainable, and did not see the shadow of the coming event. The
only shadow on the sea was the shadow of the black smoke pouring
heavily from the funnel its immense streamer, whose end was con-
stantly dissolving in the air. Two Malays, silent and almost motion-
less, steered, one on each side of the wheel, whose brass rim shone
fragmentarily in the oval of light thrown out by the binnacle. Now
and then a hand, with black fingers alternately letting go and catch-
ing hold of revolving spokes, appeared in the illumined part; the
links of wheel-chains ground heavily in the grooves of the barrel.
Jim would glance at the compass, would glance around the unattain-
able horizon, would stretch himself till his joints cracked, with a
leisurely twist of the body, in the very excess of well-being; and, as
if made audacious by the invincible aspect of the peace, he felt he
cared for nothing that could happen to him to the end of his days.
From time to time he glanced idly at a chart pegged out with four
drawing-pins on a low three-legged table abaft the steering-gear
case. The sheet of paper portraying the depths of the sea presented
a shiny surface under the light of a bull's-eye lamp lashed to a
stanchion, a surface as level and smooth as the glimmering surface
of the waters. Parallel rulers with a pair of dividers reposed on it;
the ship's position at last noon was marked with a small black cross,
and the straight pencil-line drawn firmly as far as Perim figured the
course of the ship -- the path of souls towards the holy place, the
promise of salvation, the reward of eternal life -- while the pencil
with its sharp end touching the Somali coast lay round and still like
a naked ship's spar floating in the pool of a sheltered dock. 'How
steady she goes,' thought Jim with wonder, with something like
gratitude for this high peace of sea and sky. At such times his
thoughts would be full of valorous deeds: he loved these dreams
and the success of his imaginary achievements. They were the best
parts of life, its secret truth, its hidden reality. They had a gorgeous
virility, the charm of vagueness, they passed before him with an
heroic tread; they carried his soul away with them and made it
drunk with the divine philtre of an unbounded confidence in itself.
There was nothing he could not face. He was so pleased with the
idea that he smiled, keeping perfunctorily his eyes ahead; and when
he happened to glance back he saw the white streak of the wake
drawn as straight by the ship's keel upon the sea as the black line
drawn by the pencil upon the chart.
  The ash-buckets racketed, clanking up and down the stoke-hold
ventilators, and this tin-pot clatter warned him the end of his watch
was near. He sighed with content, with regret as well at having to
part from that serenity which fostered the adventurous freedom of
his thoughts. He was a little sleepy too, and felt a pleasurable lan-
guor running through every limb as though all the blood in his body
had turned to warm milk. His skipper had come up noiselessly, in
pyjamas and with his sleeping-jacket flung wide open. Red of face,
only half awake, the left eye partly closed, the right staring stupid
and glassy, he hung his big head over the chart and scratched his
ribs sleepily. There was something obscene in the sight of his naked
flesh. His bared breast glistened soft and greasy as though he had
sweated out his fat in his sleep. He pronounced a professional
remark in a voice harsh and dead, resembling the rasping sound of
a wood-file on the edge of a plank; the fold of his double chin hung
like a bag triced up close under the hinge of his jaw. Jim started,
and his answer was full of deference; but the odious and fleshy
figure, as though seen for the first time in a revealing moment, fixed
itself in his memory for ever as the incarnation of everything vile
and base that lurks in the world we love: in our own hearts we trust
for our salvation, in the men that surround us, in the sights that fill
our eyes, in the sounds that fill our ears, and in the air that fills our
lungs.
  The thin gold shaving of the moon floating slowly downwards
had lost itself on the darkened surface of the waters, and the eternity
beyond the sky seemed to come down nearer to the earth, with the
augmented glitter of the stars, with the more profound sombreness
in the lustre of the half-transparent dome covering the flat disc of
an opaque sea. The ship moved so smoothly that her onward motion
was imperceptible to the senses of men, as though she had been a
crowded planet speeding through the dark spaces of ether behind
the swarm of suns, in the appalling and calm solitudes awaiting the
breath of future creations. 'Hot is no name for it down below,' said
a voice.
  Jim smiled without looking round. The skipper presented an
unmoved breadth of back: it was the renegade's trick to appear
pointedly unaware of your existence unless it suited his purpose to
turn at you with a devouring glare before he let loose a torrent of
foamy, abusive jargon that came like a gush from a sewer. Now he
emitted only a sulky grunt; the second engineer at the head of
the bridge-ladder, kneading with damp palms a dirty sweat-rag,
unabashed, continued the tale of his complaints. The sailors had a
good time of it up here, and what was the use of them in the world
he would be blowed if he could see. The poor devils of engineers
had to get the ship along anyhow, and they could very well do the
rest too; by gosh they -- 'Shut up!' growled the German stolidly.
'Oh yes! Shut up -- and when anything goes wrong you fly to us,
don't you?' went on the other. He was more than half cooked, he
expected; but anyway, now, he did not mind how much he sinned,
because these last three days he had passed through a fine course of
training for the place where the bad boys go when they die -- b'gosh,
he had -- besides being made jolly well deaf by the blasted racket
below. The durned, compound, surface-condensing, rotten scrap-
heap rattled and banged down there like an old deck-winch, only
more so; and what made him risk his life every night and day that
God made amongst the refuse of a breaking-up yard flying round
at fifty-seven revolutions, was more than he could tell. He must have
been born reckless, b'gosh. He . . . 'Where did you get drink?'
inquired the German, very savage; but motionless in the light of
the binnacle, like a clumsy effigy of a man cut out of a block of fat.
Jim went on smiling at the retreating horizon; his heart was full of
generous impulses, and his thought was contemplating his own
superiority. 'Drink!' repeated the engineer with amiable scorn: he
was hanging on with both hands to the rail, a shadowy figure with
flexible legs. 'Not from you, captain. You're far too mean, b'gosh.
You would let a good man die sooner than give him a drop of
schnapps. That's what you Germans call economy. Penny wise,
pound foolish.' He became sentimental. The chief had given him a
four-finger nip about ten o'clock -- 'only one, s'elp me!' -- good old
chief; but as to getting the old fraud out of his bunk -- a five-ton
crane couldn't do it. Not it. Not to-night anyhow. He was sleeping
sweetly like a little child, with a bottle of prime brandy under his
pillow. From the thick throat of the commander of the Patna came
a low rumble, on which the sound of the word Schwein fluttered
high and low like a capricious feather in a faint stir of air. He and
the chief engineer had been cronies for a good few years -- serving
the same jovial, crafty, old Chinaman, with horn-rimmed goggles
and strings of red silk plaited into the venerable grey hairs of his
pigtail. The quay-side opinion in the Patna's home-port was that
these two in the way of brazen peculation 'had done together pretty
well everything you can think of.' Outwardly they were badly mat-
ched: one dull-eyed, malevolent, and of soft fleshy curves; the other
lean, all hollows, with a head long and bony like the head of an old
horse, with sunken cheeks, with sunken temples, with an indiffer-
ent glazed glance of sunken eyes. He had been stranded out East
somewhere -- in Canton, in Shanghai, or perhaps in Yokohama; he
probably did not care to remember himself the exact locality, nor
yet the cause of his shipwreck. He had been, in mercy to his youth,
kicked quietly out of his ship twenty years ago or more, and it might
have been so much worse for him that the memory of the episode
had in it hardly a trace of misfortune. Then, steam navigation
expanding in these seas and men of his craft being scarce at first,
he had 'got on' after a sort. He was eager to let strangers know in a
dismal mumble that he was 'an old stager out here.' When he
moved, a skeleton seemed to sway loose in his clothes; his walk
was mere wandering, and he was given to wander thus around the
engine-room skylight, smoking, without relish, doctored tobacco
in a brass bowl at the end of a cherrywood stem four feet long, with
the imbecile gravity of a thinker evolving a system of philosophy
from the hazy glimpse of a truth. He was usually anything but free
with his private store of liquor; but on that night he had departed
from his principles, so that his second, a weak-headed child of
Wapping, what with the unexpectedness of the treat and the
strength of the stuff, had become very happy, cheeky, and talkative.
The fury of the New South Wales German was extreme; he puffed
like an exhaust-pipe, and Jim, faintly amused by the scene, was
impatient for the time when he could get below: the last ten minutes
of the watch were irritating like a gun that hangs fire; those men
did not belong to the world of heroic adventure; they weren't bad
chaps though. Even the skipper himself . . . His gorge rose at the
mass of panting flesh from which issued gurgling mutters, a cloudy
trickle of filthy expressions; but he was too pleasurably languid to
dislike actively this or any other thing. The quality of these men
did not matter; he rubbed shoulders with them, but they could not
touch him; he shared the air they breathed, but he was differ-
ent.... Would the skipper go for the engineer? ... The life was
easy and he was too sure of himself -- too sure of himself to . . . The
line dividing his meditation from a surreptitious doze on his feet
was thinner than a thread in a spider's web.
  The second engineer was coming by easy transitions to the con-
sideration of his finances and of his courage.
  'Who's drunk? I? No, no, captain! That won't do. You ought to
know by this time the chief ain't free-hearted enough to make a
sparrow drunk, b'gosh. I've never been the worse for liquor in my
life; the stuff ain't made yet that would make me drunk. I could
drink liquid fire against your whisky peg for peg, b'gosh, and keep
as cool as a cucumber. If I thought I was drunk I would jump
overboard -- do away with myself, b'gosh. I would! Straight! And
I won't go off the bridge. Where do you expect me to take the air
on a night like this, eh? On deck amongst that vermin down there?
Likely -- ain't it! And I am not afraid of anything you can do.'
  The German lifted two heavy fists to heaven and shook them a
little without a word.
  'I don't know what fear is,' pursued the engineer, with the
enthusiasm of sincere conviction. 'I am not afraid of doing all the
bloomin' work in this rotten hooker, b'gosh! And a jolly good thing
for you that there are some of us about the world that aren't afraid
of their lives, or where would you be -- you and this old thing here
with her plates like brown paper -- brown paper, s'elp me? It's all
very fine for you -- you get a power of pieces out of her one way and
another; but what about me -- what do I get? A measly hundred and
fifty dollars a month and find yourself. I wish to ask you respect-
fully -- respectfully, mind -- who wouldn't chuck a dratted job like
this? 'Tain't safe, s'elp me, it ain't! Only I am one of them fearless
fellows . . .'
  He let go the rail and made ample gestures as if demonstrating
in the air the shape and extent of his valour; his thin voice darted
in prolonged squeaks upon the sea, he tiptoed back and forth for
the better emphasis of utterance, and suddenly pitched down head-
first as though he had been clubbed from behind. He said 'Damn!'
as he tumbled; an instant of silence followed upon his screeching:
Jim and the skipper staggered forward by common accord, and
catching themselves up, stood very stiff and still gazing, amazed,
at the undisturbed level of the sea. Then they looked upwards at
the stars.
  What had happened? The wheezy thump of the engines went
on. Had the earth been checked in her course? They could not
understand; and suddenly the calm sea, the sky without a cloud,
appeared formidably insecure in their immobility, as if poised on
the brow of yawning destruction. The engineer rebounded verti-
cally full length and collapsed again into a vague heap. This heap
said 'What's that?' in the muffled accents of profound grief. A faint
noise as of thunder, of thunder infinitely remote, less than a sound,
hardly more than a vibration, passed slowly, and the ship quivered
in response, as if the thunder had growled deep down in the water.
The eyes of the two Malays at the wheel glittered towards the white
men, but their dark hands remained closed on the spokes. The
sharp hull driving on its way seemed to rise a few inches in suc-
cession through its whole length, as though it had become pliable,
and settled down again rigidly to its work of cleaving the smooth
surface of the sea. Its quivering stopped, and the faint noise of
thunder ceased all at once, as though the ship had steamed across
a narrow belt of vibrating water and of humming air.

                        CHAPTER 4

  A month or so afterwards, when Jim, in answer to pointed ques-
tions, tried to tell honestly the truth of this experience, he said,
speaking of the ship: 'She went over whatever it was as easy as a
snake crawling over a stick.' The illustration was good: the ques-
tions were aiming at facts, and the official Inquiry was being held
in the police court of an Eastern port. He stood elevated in the
witness-box, with burning cheeks in a cool lofty room: the big
framework of punkahs moved gently to and fro high above his head,
and from below many eyes were looking at him out of dark faces, out
of white faces, out of red faces, out of faces attentive, spellbound, as
if all these people sitting in orderly rows upon narrow benches had
been enslaved by the fascination of his voice. It was very loud, it
rang startling in his own ears, it was the only sound audible in the
world, for the terribly distinct questions that extorted his answers
seemed to shape themselves in anguish and pain within his breast, --
came to him poignant and silent like the terrible questioning of
one's conscience. Outside the court the sun blazed -- within was the
wind of great punkahs that made you shiver, the shame that made
you burn, the attentive eyes whose glance stabbed. The face of the
presiding magistrate, clean shaved and impassible, looked at him
deadly pale between the red faces of the two nautical assessors. The
light of a broad window under the ceiling fell from above on the
heads and shoulders of the three men, and they were fiercely distinct
in the half-light of the big court-room where the audience seemed
composed of staring shadows. They wanted facts. Facts! They
demanded facts from him, as if facts could explain anything!
  'After you had concluded you had collided with something float-
ing awash, say a water-logged wreck, you were ordered by your
captain to go forward and ascertain if there was any damage done.
Did you think it likely from the force of the blow?' asked the
assessor sitting to the left. He had a thin horseshoe beard, salient
cheek-bones, and with both elbows on the desk clasped his rugged
hands before his face, looking at Jim with thoughtful blue eyes; the
other, a heavy, scornful man, thrown back in his seat, his left arm
extended full length, drummed delicately with his finger-tips on a
blotting-pad: in the middle the magistrate upright in the roomy
arm-chair, his head inclined slightly on the shoulder, had his arms
crossed on his breast and a few flowers in a glass vase by the side of
his inkstand.
  'I did not,' said Jim. 'I was told to call no one and to make no noise
for fear of creating a panic. I thought the precaution reasonable. I
took one of the lamps that were hung under the awnings and went
forward. After opening the forepeak hatch I heard splashing in
there. I lowered then the lamp the whole drift of its lanyard, and
saw that the forepeak was more than half full of water already.
I knew then there must be a big hole below the water-line.' He
paused.
  'Yes,' said the big assessor, with a dreamy smile at the blotting-
pad; his fingers played incessantly, touching the paper without
noise.
  'I did not think of danger just then. I might have been a little
startled: all this happened in such a quiet way and so very suddenly.
I knew there was no other bulkhead in the ship but the collision
bulkhead separating the forepeak from the forehold. I went back
to tell the captain. I came upon the second engineer getting up at
the foot of the bridge-ladder: he seemed dazed, and told me he
thought his left arm was broken; he had slipped on the top step
when getting down while I was forward. He exclaimed, "My God!
That rotten bulkhead'll give way in a minute, and the damned thing
will go down under us like a lump of lead." He pushed me away
with his right arm and ran before me up the ladder, shouting as he
climbed. His left arm hung by his side. I followed up in time to see
the captain rush at him and knock him down flat on his back. He
did not strike him again: he stood bending over him and speaking
angrily but quite low. I fancy he was asking him why the devil he
didn't go and stop the engines, instead of making a row about it on
deck. I heard him say, "Get up! Run! fly!" He swore also. The
engineer slid down the starboard ladder and bolted round the sky-
light to the engine-room companion which was on the port side. He
moaned as he ran....'
  He spoke slowly; he remembered swiftly and with extreme vivid-
ness; he could have reproduced like an echo the moaning of the
engineer for the better information of these men who wanted facts.
After his first feeling of revolt he had come round to the view that
only a meticulous precision of statement would bring out the true
horror behind the appalling face of things. The facts those men
were so eager to know had been visible, tangible, open to the senses,
occupying their place in space and time, requiring for their exist-
ence a fourteen-hundred-ton steamer and twenty-seven minutes by
the watch; they made a whole that had features, shades of
expression, a complicated aspect that could be remembered by the
eye, and something else besides, something invisible, a directing
spirit of perdition that dwelt within, like a malevolent soul in a
detestable body. He was anxious to make this clear. This had not
been a common affair, everything in it had been of the utmost
importance, and fortunately he remembered everything. He wanted
to go on talking for truth's sake, perhaps for his own sake also; and
while his utterance was deliberate, his mind positively flew round
and round the serried circle of facts that had surged up all about
him to cut him off from the rest of his kind: it was like a creature
that, finding itself imprisoned within an enclosure of high stakes,
dashes round and round, distracted in the night, trying to find a
weak spot, a crevice, a place to scale, some opening through which
it may squeeze itself and escape. This awful activity of mind made
him hesitate at times in his speech....
  'The captain kept on moving here and there on the bridge; he
seemed calm enough, only he stumbled several times; and once as
I stood speaking to him he walked right into me as though he had
been stone-blind. He made no definite answer to what I had to tell.
He mumbled to himself; all I heard of it were a few words that
sounded like "confounded steam!" and "infernal steam!" -- some-
thing about steam. I thought . . .'
  He was becoming irrelevant; a question to the point cut short his
speech, like a pang of pain, and he felt extremely discouraged and
weary. He was coming to that, he was coming to that -- and now,
checked brutally, he had to answer by yes or no. He answered
truthfully by a curt 'Yes, I did'; and fair of face, big of frame, with
young, gloomy eyes, he held his shoulders upright above the box
while his soul writhed within him. He was made to answer another
question so much to the point and so useless, then waited again.
His mouth was tastelessly dry, as though he had been eating dust,
then salt and bitter as after a drink of sea-water. He wiped his damp
forehead, passed his tongue over parched lips, felt a shiver run
down his back. The big assessor had dropped his eyelids, and
drummed on without a sound, careless and mournful; the eyes of
the other above the sunburnt, clasped fingers seemed to glow with
kindliness; the magistrate had swayed forward; his pale face
hovered near the flowers, and then dropping sideways over the arm
of his chair, he rested his temple in the palm of his hand. The wind
of the punkahs eddied down on the heads, on the dark-faced natives
wound about in voluminous draperies, on the Europeans sitting
together very hot and in drill suits that seemed to fit them as close
as their skins, and holding their round pith hats on their knees;
while gliding along the walls the court peons, buttoned tight in long
white coats, flitted rapidly to and fro, running on bare toes, red-
sashed, red turban on head, as noiseless as ghosts, and on the alert
like so many retrievers.
  Jim's eyes, wandering in the intervals of his answers, rested upon
a white man who sat apart from the others, with his face worn and
clouded, but with quiet eyes that glanced straight, interested and
clear. Jim answered another question and was tempted to cry out,
'What's the good of this! what's the good!' He tapped with his foot
slightly, bit his lip, and looked away over the heads. He met the
eyes of the white man. The glance directed at him was not the
fascinated stare of the others. It was an act of intelligent volition.
Jim between two questions forgot himself so far as to find leisure
for a thought. This fellow -- ran the thought -- looks at me as though
he could see somebody or something past my shoulder. He had
come across that man before -- in the street perhaps. He was positive
he had never spoken to him. For days, for many days, he had
spoken to no one, but had held silent, incoherent, and endless
converse with himself, like a prisoner alone in his cell or like a
wayfarer lost in a wilderness. At present he was answering questions
that did not matter though they had a purpose, but he doubted
whether he would ever again speak out as long as he lived. The
sound of his own truthful statements confirmed his deliberate
opinion that speech was of no use to him any longer. That man
there seemed to be aware of his hopeless difficulty. Jim looked at
him, then turned away resolutely, as after a final parting.
  And later on, many times, in distant parts of the world, Marlow
showed himself willing to remember Jim, to remember him at
length, in detail and audibly.
  Perhaps it would be after dinner, on a verandah draped in motion-
less foliage and crowned with flowers, in the deep dusk speckled by
fiery cigar-ends. The elongated bulk of each cane-chair harboured
a silent listener. Now and then a small red glow would move
abruptly, and expanding light up the fingers of a languid hand, part
of a face in profound repose, or flash a crimson gleam into a pair of
pensive eyes overshadowed by a fragment of an unruffled forehead;
and with the very first word uttered Marlow's body, extended at
rest in the seat, would become very still, as though his spirit had
winged its way back into the lapse of time and were speaking
through his lips from the past.

                        CHAPTER 5

  'Oh yes. I attended the inquiry,' he would say, 'and to this day I
haven't left off wondering why I went. I am willing to believe each
of us has a guardian angel, if you fellows will concede to me that
each of us has a familiar devil as well. I want you to own up, because
I don't like to feel exceptional in any way, and I know I have him --
the devil, I mean. I haven't seen him, of course, but I go upon
circumstantial evidence. He is there right enough, and, being
malicious, he lets me in for that kind of thing. What kind of thing,
you ask? Why, the inquiry thing, the yellow-dog thing -- you
wouldn't think a mangy, native tyke would be allowed to trip up
people in the verandah of a magistrate's court, would you? -- the
kind of thing that by devious, unexpected, truly diabolical ways
causes me to run up against men with soft spots, with hard spots,
with hidden plague spots, by Jove! and loosens their tongues at the
sight of me for their infernal confidences; as though, forsooth, I
had no confidences to make to myself, as though -- God help me! --
I didn't have enough confidential information about myself to har-
row my own soul till the end of my appointed time. And what I
have done to be thus favoured I want to know. I declare I am as full
of my own concerns as the next man, and I have as much memory
as the average pilgrim in this valley, so you see I am not particularly
fit to be a receptacle of confessions. Then why? Can't tell -- unless
it be to make time pass away after dinner. Charley, my dear chap,
your dinner was extremely good, and in consequence these men
here look upon a quiet rubber as a tumultuous occupation. They
wallow in your good chairs and think to themselves, "Hang exer-
tion. Let that Marlow talk."
  'Talk! So be it. And it's easy enough to talk of Master Jim, after
a good spread, two hundred feet above the sea-level, with a box of
decent cigars handy, on a blessed evening of freshness and starlight
that would make the best of us forget we are only on sufferance here
and got to pick our way in cross lights, watching every precious
minute and every irremediable step, trusting we shall manage yet
to go out decently in the end -- but not so sure of it after all -- and
with dashed little help to expect from those we touch elbows with
right and left. Of course there are men here and there to whom the
whole of life is like an after-dinner hour with a cigar; easy, pleasant,
empty, perhaps enlivened by some fable of strife to be forgotten
before the end is told -- before the end is told -- even if there happens
to be any end to it.
  'My eyes met his for the first time at that inquiry. You must know
that everybody connected in any way with the sea was there, because
the affair had been notorious for days, ever since that mysterious
cable message came from Aden to start us all cackling. I say mysteri-
ous, because it was so in a sense though it contained a naked fact,
about as naked and ugly as a fact can well be. The whole waterside
talked of nothing else. First thing in the morning as I was dressing
in my state-room, I would hear through the bulkhead my Parsee
Dubash jabbering about the Patna with the steward, while he drank
a cup of tea, by favour, in the pantry. No sooner on shore I would
meet some acquaintance, and the first remark would be, "Did you
ever hear of anything to beat this?" and according to his kind the
man would smile cynically, or look sad, or let out a swear or two.
Complete strangers would accost each other familiarly, just for the
sake of easing their minds on the subject: every confounded loafer
in the town came in for a harvest of drinks over this affair: you
heard of it in the harbour office, at every ship-broker's, at your
agent's, from whites, from natives, from half-castes, from the very
boatmen squatting half naked on the stone steps as you went up --
by Jove! There was some indignation, not a few jokes, and no end
of discussions as to what had become of them, you know. This went
on for a couple of weeks or more, and the opinion that whatever
was mysterious in this affair would turn out to be tragic as well,
began to prevail, when one fine morning, as I was standing in the
shade by the steps of the harbour office, I perceived four men
walking towards me along the quay. I wondered for a while where
that queer lot had sprung from, and suddenly, I may say, I shouted
to myself, "Here they are!"
  'There they were, sure enough, three of them as large as life, and
one much larger of girth than any living man has a right to be, just
landed with a good breakfast inside of them from an outward-bound
Dale Line steamer that had come in about an hour after sunrise.
There could be no mistake; I spotted the jolly skipper of the Patna
at the first glance: the fattest man in the whole blessed tropical belt
clear round that good old earth of ours. Moreover, nine months or
so before, I had come across him in Samarang. His steamer was
loading in the Roads, and he was abusing the tyrannical institutions
of the German empire, and soaking himself in beer all day long and
day after day in De Jongh's back-shop, till De Jongh, who charged
a guilder for every bottle without as much as the quiver of an eyelid,
would beckon me aside, and, with his little leathery face all puck-
ered up, declare confidentially, "Business is business, but this man,
captain, he make me very sick. Tfui!"
  'I was looking at him from the shade. He was hurrying on a little
in advance, and the sunlight beating on him brought out his bulk
in a startling way. He made me think of a trained baby elephant
walking on hind-legs. He was extravagantly gorgeous too -- got
up in a soiled sleeping-suit, bright green and deep orange vertical
stripes, with a pair of ragged straw slippers on his bare feet, and
somebody's cast-off pith hat, very dirty and two sizes too small for
him, tied up with a manilla rope-yarn on the top of his big head.
You understand a man like that hasn't the ghost of a chance when
it comes to borrowing clothes. Very well. On he came in hot haste,
without a look right or left, passed within three feet of me, and in
the innocence of his heart went on pelting upstairs into the harbour
office to make his deposition, or report, or whatever you like to call
it.
  'It appears he addressed himself in the first instance to the princi-
pal shipping-master. Archie Ruthvel had just come in, and, as his
story goes, was about to begin his arduous day by giving a dressing-
down to his chief clerk. Some of you might have known him -- an
obliging little Portuguese half-caste with a miserably skinny neck,
and always on the hop to get something from the shipmasters in the
way of eatables -- a piece of salt pork, a bag of biscuits, a few
potatoes, or what not. One voyage, I recollect, I tipped him a live
sheep out of the remnant of my sea-stock: not that I wanted him to
do anything for me -- he couldn't, you know -- but because his child-
like belief in the sacred right to perquisites quite touched my heart.
It was so strong as to be almost beautiful. The race -- the two races
rather -- and the climate . . . However, never mind. I know where
I have a friend for life.
  'Well, Ruthvel says he was giving him a severe lecture -- on official
morality, I suppose -- when he heard a kind of subdued commotion
at his back, and turning his head he saw, in his own words, some-
thing round and enormous, resembling a sixteen-hundred-weight
sugar-hogshead wrapped in striped flannelette, up-ended in the
middle of the large floor space in the office. He declares he was so
taken aback that for quite an appreciable time he did not realise the
thing was alive, and sat still wondering for what purpose and by
what means that object had been transported in front of his desk.
The archway from the ante-room was crowded with punkah-pul-
lers, sweepers, police peons, the coxswain and crew of the harbour
steam-launch, all craning their necks and almost climbing on each
other's backs. Quite a riot. By that time the fellow had managed to
tug and jerk his hat clear of his head, and advanced with slight bows
at Ruthvel, who told me the sight was so discomposing that for
some time he listened, quite unable to make out what that appar-
ition wanted. It spoke in a voice harsh and lugubrious but intrepid,
and little by little it dawned upon Archie that this was a develop-
ment of the Patna case. He says that as soon as he understood who
it was before him he felt quite unwell -- Archie is so sympathetic
and easily upset -- but pulled himself together and shouted "Stop!
I can't listen to you. You must go to the Master Attendant. I can't
possibly listen to you. Captain Elliot is the man you want to see.
This way, this way." He jumped up, ran round that long counter,
pulled, shoved: the other let him, surprised but obedient at first,
and only at the door of the private office some sort of animal instinct
made him hang back and snort like a frightened bullock. "Look
here! what's up? Let go! Look here!" Archie flung open the door
without knocking. "The master of the Patna, sir," he shouts. "Go
in, captain." He saw the old man lift his head from some writing
so sharp that his nose-nippers fell off, banged the door to, and fled
to his desk, where he had some papers waiting for his signature:
but he says the row that burst out in there was so awful that he
couldn't collect his senses sufficiently to remember the spelling of
his own name. Archie's the most sensitive shipping-master in the
two hemispheres. He declares he felt as though he had thrown a
man to a hungry lion. No doubt the noise was great. I heard it down
below, and I have every reason to believe it was heard clear across
the Esplanade as far as the band-stand. Old father Elliot had a great
stock of words and could shout -- and didn't mind who he shouted
at either. He would have shouted at the Viceroy himself. As he used
to tell me: "I am as high as I can get; my pension is safe. I've a few
pounds laid by, and if they don't like my notions of duty I would
just as soon go home as not. I am an old man, and I have always
spoken my mind. All I care for now is to see my girls married before
I die." He was a little crazy on that point. His three daughters were
awfully nice, though they resembled him amazingly, and on the
mornings he woke up with a gloomy view of their matrimonial
prospects the office would read it in his eye and tremble, because,
they said, he was sure to have somebody for breakfast. However,
that morning he did not eat the renegade, but, if I may be allowed
to carry on the metaphor, chewed him up very small, so to speak,
and -- ah! ejected him again.
  'Thus in a very few moments I saw his monstrous bulk descend
in haste and stand still on the outer steps. He had stopped close to
me for the purpose of profound meditation: his large purple cheeks
quivered. He was biting his thumb, and after a while noticed me
with a sidelong vexed look. The other three chaps that had landed
with him made a little group waiting at some distance. There was
a sallow-faced, mean little chap with his arm in a sling, and a long
individual in a blue flannel coat, as dry as a chip and no stouter than
a broomstick, with drooping grey moustaches, who looked about
him with an air of jaunty imbecility. The third was an upstanding,
broad-shouldered youth, with his hands in his pockets, turning his
back on the other two who appeared to be talking together earnestly.
He stared across the empty Esplanade. A ramshackle gharry, all
dust and venetian blinds, pulled up short opposite the group, and
the driver, throwing up his right foot over his knee, gave himself
up to the critical examination of his toes. The young chap, making
no movement, not even stirring his head, just stared into the sun-
shine. This was my first view of Jim. He looked as unconcerned
and unapproachable as only the young can look. There he stood,
clean-limbed, clean-faced, firm on his feet, as promising a boy as
the sun ever shone on; and, looking at him, knowing all he knew
and a little more too, I was as angry as though I had detected him
trying to get something out of me by false pretences. He had no
business to look so sound. I thought to myself -- well, if this sort
can go wrong like that . . . and I felt as though I could fling down
my hat and dance on it from sheer mortification, as I once saw the
skipper of an Italian barque do because his duffer of a mate got into
a mess with his anchors when making a flying moor in a roadstead
full of ships. I asked myself, seeing him there apparently so much
at ease -- is he silly? is he callous? He seemed ready to start whistling
a tune. And note, I did not care a rap about the behaviour of the
other two. Their persons somehow fitted the tale that was public
property, and was going to be the subject of an official inquiry.
"That old mad rogue upstairs called me a hound," said the captain
of the Patna. I can't tell whether he recognised me -- I rather think
he did; but at any rate our glances met. He glared -- I smiled; hound
was the very mildest epithet that had reached me through the open
window. "Did he?" I said from some strange inability to hold my
tongue. He nodded, bit his thumb again, swore qnder his breath:
then lifting his head and looking at me with sullen and passionate
impudence -- "Bah! the Pacific is big, my friendt. You damned
Englishmen can do your worst; I know where there's plenty room
for a man like me: I am well aguaindt in Apia, in Honolulu, in . . ."
He paused reflectively, while without effort I could depict to myself
the sort of people he was "aguaindt" with in those places. I won't
make a secret of it that I had been "aguaindt" with not a few of that
sort myself. There are times when a man must act as though life
were equally sweet in any company. I've known such a time, and,
what's more, I shan't now pretend to pull a long face over my
necessity, because a good many of that bad company from want of
moral -- moral -- what shall I say? -- posture, or from some other
equally profound cause, were twice as instructive and twenty times
more amusing than the usual respectable thief of commerce you
fellows ask to sit at your table without any real necessity -- from
habit, from cowardice, from good-nature, from a hundred sneaking
and inadequate reasons.
  ' "You Englishmen are all rogues," went on my patriotic
Flensborg or Stettin Australian. I really don't recollect now what
decent little port on the shores of the Baltic was defiled by being
the nest of that precious bird. "What are you to shout? Eh? You
tell me? You no better than other people, and that old rogue he
make Gottam fuss with me." His thick carcass trembled on its legs
that were like a pair of pillars; it trembled from head to foot. "That's
what you English always make -- make a tam' fuss -- for any little
thing, because I was not born in your tam' country. Take away my
certificate. Take it. I don't want the certificate. A man like me don't
want your verfluchte certificate. I shpit on it." He spat. "I vill
an Amerigan citizen begome," he cried, fretting and fuming and
shuffling his feet as if to free his ankles from some invisible and
mysterious grasp that would not let him get away from that spot.
He made himself so warm that the top of his bullet head positively
smoked. Nothing mysterious prevented me from going away: curi-
osity is the most obvious of sentiments, and it held me there to see
the effect of a full information upon that young fellow who, hands
in pockets, and turning his back upon the sidewalk, gazed across
the grass-plots of the Esplanade at the yellow portico of the Malabar
Hotel with the air of a man about to go for a walk as soon as his
friend is ready. That's how he looked, and it was odious. I waited to
see him overwhelmed, confounded, pierced through and through,
squirming like an impaled beetle -- and I was half afraid to see it
too -- if you understand what I mean. Nothing more awful than to
watch a man who has been found out, not in a crime but in a more
than criminal weakness. The commonest sort of fortitude prevents
us from becoming criminals in a legal sense; it is from weakness
unknown, but perhaps suspected, as in some parts of the world you
suspect a deadly snake in every bush -- from weakness that may lie
hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully
scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not
one of us is safe. We are snared into doing things for which we get
called names, and things for which we get hanged, and yet the spirit
may well survive -- survive the condemnation, survive the halter,
by Jove! And there are things -- they look small enough sometimes
too -- by which some of us are totally and completely undone. I
watched the youngster there. I liked his appearance; I knew his
appearance; he came from the right place; he was one of us. He
stood there for all the parentage of his kind, for men and women
by no means clever or amusing, but whose very existence is based
upon honest faith, and upon the instinct of courage. I don't mean
military courage, or civil courage, or any special kind of courage. I
mean just that inborn ability to look temptations straight in the
face -- a readiness unintellectual enough, goodness knows, but with-
out pose -- a power of resistance, don't you see, ungracious if you
like, but priceless -- an unthinking and blessed stiffness before the
outward and inward terrors, before the might of nature and the
seductive corruption of men -- backed by a faith invulnerable to the
strength of facts, to the contagion of example, to the solicitation of
ideas. Hang ideas! They are tramps, vagabonds, knocking at the
back-door of your mind, each taking a little of your substance, each
carrying away some crumb of that belief in a few simple notions
you must cling to if you want to live decently and would like to die
easy!
  'This has nothing to do with Jim, directly; only he was outwardly
so typical of that good, stupid kind we like to feel marching right
and left of us in life, of the kind that is not disturbed by the vagaries
of intelligence and the perversions of -- of nerves, let us say. He was
the kind of fellow you would, on the strength of his looks, leave in
charge of the deck -- figuratively and professionally speaking. I say
I would, and I ought to know. Haven't I turned out youngsters
enough in my time, for the service of the Red Rag, to the craft of
the sea, to the craft whose whole secret could be expressed in one
short sentence, and yet must be driven afresh every day into young
heads till it becomes the component part of every waking thought --
till it is present in every dream of their young sleep! The sea has
been good to me, but when I remember all these boys that passed
through my hands, some grown up now and some drowned by this
time, but all good stuff for the sea, I don't think I have done badly
by it either. Were I to go home to-morrow, I bet that before two
days passed over my head some sunburnt young chief mate would
overtake me at some dock gateway or other, and a fresh deep voice
speaking above my hat would ask: "Don't you remember me, sir?
Why! little So-and-so. Such and such a ship. It was my first voy-
age." And I would remember a bewildered little shaver, no higher
than the back of this chair, with a mother and perhaps a big sister
on the quay, very quiet but too upset to wave their handkerchiefs
at the ship that glides out gently between the pier-heads; or perhaps
some decent middle-aged father who had come early with his boy
to see him off, and stays all the morning, because he is interested in
the windlass apparently, and stays too long, and has got to scramble
ashore at last with no time at all to say good-bye. The mud pilot on
the poop sings out to me in a drawl, "Hold her with the check
line for a moment, Mister Mate. There's a gentleman wants to get
ashore.... Up with you, sir. Nearly got carried off to Talcahuano,
didn't you? Now's your time; easy does it.... All right. Slack
away again forward there." The tugs, smoking like the pit of per-
dition, get hold and churn the old river into fury; the gentleman
ashore is dusting his knees -- the benevolent steward has shied his
umbrella after him. All very proper. He has offered his bit of sacri-
fice to the sea, and now he may go home pretending he thinks
nothing of it; and the little willing victim shall be very sea-sick
before next morning. By-and-by, when he has learned all the little
mysteries and the one great secret of the craft, he shall be fit to live
or die as the sea may decree; and the man who had taken a hand in
this fool game, in which the sea wins every toss, will be pleased to
have his back slapped by a heavy young hand, and to hear a cheery
sea-puppy voice: "Do you remember me, sir? The little So-and-
so."
  'I tell you this is good; it tells you that once in your life at least
you had gone the right way to work. I have been thus slapped, and
I have winced, for the slap was heavy, and I have glowed all day
long and gone to bed feeling less lonely in the world by virtue of
that hearty thump. Don't I remember the little So-and-so's! I tell
you I ought to know the right kind of looks. I would have trusted
the deck to that youngster on the strength of a single glance, and
gone to sleep with both eyes -- and, by Jove! it wouldn't have been
safe. There are depths of horror in that thought. He looked as
genuine as a new sovereign, but there was some infernal alloy in his
metal. How much? The least thing -- the least drop of something
rare and accursed; the least drop! -- but he made you -- standing
there with his don't-care-hang air -- he made you wonder whether
perchance he were nothing more rare than brass.
  'I couldn't believe it. I tell you I wanted to see him squirm for
the honour of the craft. The other two no-account chaps spotted
their captain, and began to move slowly towards us. They chatted
together as they strolled, and I did not care any more than if they
had not been visible to the naked eye. They grinned at each other --
might have been exchanging jokes, for all I know. I saw that with
one of them it was a case of a broken arm; and as to the long
individual with grey moustaches he was the chief engineer, and in
various ways a pretty notorious personality. They were nobodies.
They approached. The skipper gazed in an inanimate way between
his feet: he seemed to be swollen to an unnatural size by some awful
disease, by the mysterious action of an unknown poison. He lifted
his head, saw the two before him waiting, opened his mouth with
an extraordinary, sneering contortion of his puffed face -- to speak
to them, I suppose -- and then a thought seemed to strike him. His
thick, purplish lips came together without a sound, he went off in
a resolute waddle to the gharry and began to jerk at the door-handle
with such a blind brutality of impatience that I expected to see the
whole concern overturned on its side, pony and all. The driver,
shaken out of his meditation over the sole of his foot, displayed at
once all the signs of intense terror, and held with both hands, look-
ing round from his box at this vast carcass forcing its way into his
conveyance. The little machine shook and rocked tumultuously,
and the crimson nape of that lowered neck, the size of those strain-
ing thighs, the immense heaving of that dingy, striped green-and-
orange back, the whole burrowing effort of that gaudy and sordid
mass, troubled one's sense of probability with a droll and fearsome
effect, like one of those grotesque and distinct visions that scare
and fascinate one in a fever. He disappeared. I half expected the
roof to split in two, the little box on wheels to burst open in the
manner of a ripe cotton-pod -- but it only sank with a click of
flattened springs, and suddenly one venetian blind rattled down.
His shoulders reappeared, jammed in the small opening; his head
hung out, distended and tossing like a captive balloon, perspiring,
furious, spluttering. He reached for the gharry-wallah with vicious
flourishes of a fist as dumpy and red as a lump of raw meat. He
roared at him to be off, to go on. Where? Into the Pacific, perhaps.
The driver lashed; the pony snorted, reared once, and darted off at
a gallop. Where? To Apia? To Honolulu? He had 6000 miles of
tropical belt to disport himself in, and I did not hear the precise
address. A snorting pony snatched him into "Ewigkeit" in the
twinkling of an eye, and I never saw him again; and, what's more,
I don't know of anybody that ever had a glimpse of him after he
departed from my knowledge sitting inside a ramshackle little
gharry that fled round the corner in a white smother of dust. He
departed, disappeared, vanished, absconded; and absurdly enough
it looked as though he had taken that gharry with him, for never
again did I come across a sorrel pony with a slit ear and a lackadaisi-
cal Tamil driver afflicted by a sore foot. The Pacific is indeed big;
but whether he found a place for a display of his talents in it or not,
the fact remains he had flown into space like a witch on a broom-
stick. The little chap with his arm in a sling started to run after the
carriage, bleating, "Captain! I say, Captain! I sa-a-ay!" -- but after
a few steps stopped short, hung his head, and walked back slowly.
At the sharp rattle of the wheels the young fellow spun round where
he stood. He made no other movement, no gesture, no sign, and
remained facing in the new direction after the gharry had swung
out of sight.
  'All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I
am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous
effect of visual impressions. Next moment the half-caste clerk, sent
by Archie to look a little after the poor castaways of the Patna, came
upon the scene. He ran out eager and bareheaded, looking right
and left, and very full of his mission. It was doomed to be a failure
as far as the principal person was concerned, but he approached
the others with fussy importance, and, almost immediately, found
himself involved in a violent altercation with the chap that carried
his arm in a sling, and who turned out to be extremely anxious for
a row. He wasn't going to be ordered about -- "not he, b'gosh." He
wouldn't be terrified with a pack of lies by a cocky half-bred little
quill-driver. He was not going to be bullied by "no object of that
sort," if the story were true "ever so"! He bawled his wish, his
desire, his determination to go to bed. "If you weren't a God-
forsaken Portuguee," I heard him yell, "you would know that the
hospital is the right place for me." He pushed the fist of his sound
arm under the other's nose; a crowd began to collect; the half-caste,
flustered, but doing his best to appear dignified, tried to explain his
intentions. I went away without waiting to see the end.
  'But it so happened that I had a man in the hospital at the time,
and going there to see about him the day before the opening of the
Inquiry, I saw in the white men's ward that little chap tossing on
his back, with his arm in splints, and quite light-headed. To my
great surprise the other one, the long individual with drooping
white moustache, had also found his way there. I remembered I
had seen him slinking away during the quarrel, in a half prance,
half shuffle, and trying very hard not to look scared. He was no
stranger to the port, it seems, and in his distress was able to make
tracks straight for Mariani's billiard-room and grog-shop near the
bazaar. That unspeakable vagabond, Mariani, who had known the
man and had ministered to his vices in one or two other places,
kissed the ground, in a manner of speaking, before him, and shut
him up with a supply of bottles in an upstairs room of his infamous
hovel. It appears he was under some hazy apprehension as to his
personal safety, and wished to be concealed. However, Mariani told
me a long time after (when he came on board one day to dun my
steward for the price of some cigars) that he would have done more
for him without asking any questions, from gratitude for some
unholy favour received very many years ago -- as far as I could make
out. He thumped twice his brawny chest, rolled enormous black-
and-white eyes glistening with tears: "Antonio never forget --
Antonio never forget!" What was the precise nature of the immoral
obligation I never learned, but be it what it may, he had every
facility given him to remain under lock and key, with a chair, a
table, a mattress in a corner, and a litter of fallen plaster on the
floor, in an irrational state of funk, and keeping up his pecker with
such tonics as Mariani dispensed. This lasted till the evening of the
third day, when, after letting out a few horrible screams, he found
himself compelled to seek safety in flight from a legion of centi-
pedes. He burst the door open, made one leap for dear life down the
crazy little stairway, landed bodily on Mariani's stomach, picked
himself up, and bolted like a rabbit into the streets. The police
plucked him off a garbage-heap in the early morning. At first he
had a notion they were carrying him off to be hanged, and fought
for liberty like a hero, but when I sat down by his bed he had
been very quiet for two days. His lean bronzed head, with white
moustaches, looked fine and calm on the pillow, like the head of a
war-worn soldier with a child-like soul, had it not been for a hint
of spectral alarm that lurked in the blank glitter of his glance,
resembling a nondescript form of a terror crouching silently behind
a pane of glass. He was so extremely calm, that I began to indulge
in the eccentric hope of hearing something explanatory of the fam-
ous affair from his point of view. Why I longed to go grubbing into
the deplorable details of an occurrence which, after all, concerned
me no more than as a member of an obscure body of men held
together by a community of inglorious toil and by fidelity to a
certain standard of conduct, I can't explain. You may call it an
unhealthy curiosity if you like; but I have a distinct notion I wished
to find something. Perhaps, unconsciously, I hoped I would find
that something, some profound and redeeming cause, some merci-
ful explanation, some convincing shadow of an excuse. I see well
enough now that I hoped for the impossible -- for the laying of what
is the most obstinate ghost of man's creation, of the uneasy doubt
uprising like a mist, secret and gnawing like a worm, and more
chilling than the certitude of death -- the doubt of the sovereign
power enthroned in a fixed standard of conduct. It is the hardest
thing to stumble against; it is the thing that breeds yelling panics
and good little quiet villainies; it's the true shadow of calamity. Did
I believe in a miracle? and why did I desire it so ardently? Was it
for my own sake that I wished to find some shadow of an excuse
for that young fellow whom I had never seen before, but whose
appearance alone added a touch of personal concern to the thoughts
suggested by the knowledge of his weakness -- made it a thing of
mystery and terror -- like a hint of a destructive fate ready for us all
whose youth -- in its day -- had resembled his youth? I fear that such
was the secret motive of my prying. I was, and no mistake, looking
for a miracle. The only thing that at this distance of time strikes me
as miraculous is the extent of my imbecility. I positively hoped to
obtain from that battered and shady invalid some exorcism against
the ghost of doubt. I must have been pretty desperate too, for,
without loss of time, after a few indifferent and friendly sentences
which he answered with languid readiness, just as any decent sick
man would do, I produced the word Patna wrapped up in a delicate
question as in a wisp of floss silk. I was delicate selfishly; I did not
want to startle him; I had no solicitude for him; I was not furious
with him and sorry for him: his experience was of no importance,
his redemption would have had no point for me. He had grown old
in minor iniquities, and could no longer inspire aversion or pity.
He repeated Patna? interrogatively, seemed to make a short effort
of memory, and said: "Quite right. I am an old stager out here. I
saw her go down." I made ready to vent my indignation at such a
stupid lie, when he added smoothly, "She was full of reptiles."
  'This made me pause. What did he mean? The unsteady phantom
of terror behind his glassy eyes seemed to stand still and look into
mine wistfully. "They turned me out of my bunk in the middle
watch to look at her sinking," he pursued in a reflective tone. His
voice sounded alarmingly strong all at once. I was sorry for my
folly. There was no snowy-winged coif of a nursing sister to be seen
flitting in the perspective of the ward; but away in the middle of a
long row of empty iron bedsteads an accident case from some ship
in the Roads sat up brown and gaunt with a white bandage set
rakishly on the forehead. Suddenly my interesting invalid shot out
an arm thin like a tentacle and clawed my shoulder. "Only my eyes
were good enough to see. I am famous for my eyesight. That's why
they called me, I expect. None of them was quick enough to see her
go, but they saw that she was gone right enough, and sang out
together -- like this . " . . . A wolfish howl searched the very recesses
of my soul. "Oh! make 'im dry up," whined the accident case
irritably. "You don't believe me, I suppose," went on the other,
with an air of ineffable conceit. "I tell you there are no such eyes
as mine this side of the Persian Gulf. Look under the bed."
  'Of course I stooped instantly. I defy anybody not to have done
so. "What can you see?" he asked. "Nothing," I said, feeling
awfully ashamed of myself. He scrutinised my face with wild and
withering contempt. "Just so," he said, "but if I were to look I
could see -- there's no eyes like mine, I tell you." Again he clawed,
pulling at me downwards in his eagerness to relieve himself by a
confidential communication. "Millions of pink toads. There's no
eyes like mine. Millions of pink toads. It's worse than seeing a ship
sink. I could look at sinking ships and smoke my pipe all day long.
Why don't they give me back my pipe? I would get a smoke while
I watched these toads. The ship was full of them. They've got to
be watched, you know." He winked facetiously. The perspiration
dripped on him off my head, my drill coat clung to my wet back:
the afternoon breeze swept impetuously over the row of bedsteads,
the stiff folds of curtains stirred perpendicularly, rattling on brass
rods, the covers of empty beds blew about noiselessly near the bare
floor all along the line, and I shivered to the very marrow. The soft
wind of the tropics played in that naked ward as bleak as a winter's
gale in an old barn at home. "Don't you let him start his hollering,
mister," hailed from afar the accident casell in a disuessed angry
shout that came ringing between the walls like a quavering call
down a tunnel. The clawing hand hauled at my shoulder; he leered
at me knowingly. "The ship was full of them, you know, and we
had to clear out on the strict Q.T.," he whispered with extreme
rapidity. "All pink. All pink -- as big as mastiffs, with an eye on the
top of the head and claws all round their ugly mouths. Ough!
Ough!" Quick jerks as of galvanic shocks disclosed under the flat
coverlet the outlines of meagre and agitated legs; he let go my
shoulder and reached after something in the air; his body trembled
tensely like a released harp-string; and while I looked down, the
spectral horror in him broke through his glassy gaze. Instantly his
face of an old soldier, with its noble and calm outlines, became
decomposed before my eyes by the corruption of stealthy cunning,
of an abominable caution and of desperate fear. He restrained a cry --
"Ssh! what are they doing now down there?" he asked, pointing to
the floor with fantastic precautions of voice and gesture, whose
meaning, borne upon my mind in a lurid flash, made me very sick
of my cleverness. "They are all asleep," I answered, watching him
narrowly. That was it. That's what he wanted to hear; these were
the exact words that could calm him. He drew a long breath. "Ssh!
Quiet, steady. I am an old stager out here. I know them brutes.
Bash in the head of the first that stirs. There's too many of them,
and she won't swim more than ten minutes." He panted again.
"Hurry up," he yelled suddenly, and went on in a steady scream:
"They are all awake -- millions of them. They are trampling on me!
Wait! Oh, wait! I'll smash them in heaps like flies. Wait for me!
Help! H-e-elp!" An interminable and sustained howl completed my
discomfiture. I saw in the distance the accident case raise deplorably
both his hands to his bandaged head; a dresser, aproned to the chin
showed himself in the vista of the ward, as if seen in the small end
of a telescope. I confessed myself fairly routed, and without more
ado, stepping out through one of the long windows, escaped into
the outside gallery. The howl pursued me like a vengeance. I turned
into a deserted landing, and suddenly all became very still and quiet
around me, and I descended the bare and shiny staircase in a silence
that enabled me to compose my distracted thoughts. Down below
I met one of the resident surgeons who was crossing the courtyard
and stopped me. "Been to see your man, Captain? I think we may
let him go to-morrow. These fools have no notion of taking care of
themselves, though. I say, we've got the chief engineer of that
pilgrim ship here. A curious case. D.T.'s of the worst kind. He has
been drinking hard in that Greek's or Italian's grog-shop for three
days. What can you expect? Four bottles of that kind of brandy a
day, I am told. Wonderful, if true. Sheeted with boiler-iron inside
I should think. The head, ah! the head, of course, gone, but the
curious part is there's some sort of method in his raving. I am trying
to find out. Most unusual -- that thread of logic in such a delirium.
Traditionally he ought to see snakes, but he doesn't. Good old
tradition's at a discount nowadays. Eh! His -- er -- visions are
batrachian. Ha! ha! No, seriously, I never remember being so inter-
ested in a case of jim-jams before. He ought to be dead, don't you
know, after such a festive experiment. Oh! he is a tough object.
Four-and-twenty years of the tropics too. You ought really to take
a peep at him. Noble-looking old boozer. Most extraordinary man
I ever met -- medically, of course. Won't you?"
  'I had been all along exhibiting the usual polite signs of interest,
but now assuming an air of regret I murmured of want of time, and
shook hands in a hurry. "I say," he cried after me; "he can't attend
that inquiry. Is his evidence material, you think?"
  ' "Not in the least," I called back from the gateway.'

                          CHAPTER 6

  'The authorities were evidently of the same opinion. The inquiry
was not adjourned. It was held on the appointed day to satisfy the
law, and it was well attended because of its human interest, no
doubt. There was no incertitude as to facts -- as to the one material
fact, I mean. How the Patna came by her hurt it was impossible to
find out; the court did not expect to find out; and in the whole
audience there was not a man who cared. Yet, as I've told you, all
the sailors in the port attended, and the waterside business was fully
represented. Whether they knew it or not, the interest that drew
them there was purely psychological -- the expectation of some
essential disclosure as to the strength, the power, the horror, of
human emotions. Naturally nothing of the kind could be disclosed.
The examination of the only man able and willing to face it was
beating futilely round the well-known fact, and the play of questions
upon it was as instructive as the tapping with a hammer on an iron
box, were the object to find out what's inside. However, an official
inquiry could not be any other thing. Its object was not the funda-
mental why, but the superficial how, of this affair.
  'The young chap could have told them, and, though that very
thing was the thing that interested the audience, the questions put
to him necessarily led him away from what to me, for instance,
would have been the only truth worth knowing. You can't expect
the constituted authorities to inquire into the state of a man's soul --
or is it only of his liver? Their business was to come down upon
the consequences, and frankly, a casual police magistrate and two
nautical assessors are not much good for anything else. I don't mean
to imply these fellows were stupid. The magistrate was very patient.
One of the assessors was a sailing-ship skipper with a reddish beard,
and of a pious disposition. Brierly was the other. Big Brierly. Some
of you must have heard of Big Brierly -- the captain of the crack
ship of the Blue Star line. That's the man.
  'He seemed consumedly bored by the honour thrust upon him.
He had never in his life made a mistake, never had an accident,
never a mishap, never a check in his steady rise, and he seemed to
be one of those lucky fellows who know nothing of indecision, much
less of self-mistrust. At thirty-two he had one of the best commands
going in the Eastern trade -- and, what's more, he thought a lot of
what he had. There was nothing like it in the world, and I suppose
if you had asked him point-blank he would have confessed that in
his opinion there was not such another commander. The choice
had fallen upon the right man. The rest of mankind that did not
command the sixteen-knot steel steamer Ossa were rather poor crea-
tures. He had saved lives at sea, had rescued ships in distress, had
a gold chronometer presented to him by the underwriters, and a
pair of binoculars with a suitable inscription from some foreign
Government, in commemoration of these services. He was acutely
aware of his merits and of his rewards. I liked him well enough,
though some I know -- meek, friendly men at that -- couldn't stand
him at any price. I haven't the slightest doubt he considered himself
vastly my superior -- indeed, had you been Emperor of East and
West, you could not have ignored your inferiority in his presence --
but I couldn't get up any real sentiment of offence. He did not
despise me for anything I could help, for anything I was -- don't
you know? I was a negligible quantity simply because I was not the
fortunate man of the earth, not Montague Brierly in command of
the Ossa, not the owner of an inscribed gold chronometer and of
silver-mounted binoculars testifying to the excellence of my sea-
manship and to my indomitable pluck; not possessed of an acute
sense of my merits and of my rewards, besides the love and worship
of a black retriever, the most wonderful of its kind -- for never was
such a man loved thus by such a dog. No doubt, to have all this
forced upon you was exasperating enough; but when I reflected that
I was associated in these fatal disadvantages with twelve hundred
millions of other more or less human beings, I found I could bear
my share of his good-natured and contemptuous pity for the sake
of something indefinite and attractive in the man. I have never
defined to myself this attraction, but there were moments when I
envied him. The sting of life could do no more to his complacent
soul than the scratch of a pin to the smooth face of a rock. This was
enviable. As I looked at him, flanking on one side the unassuming
pale-faced magistrate who presided at the inquiry, his self-satisfac-
tion presented to me and to the world a surface as hard as granite.
He committed suicide very soon after.
  'No wonder Jim's case bored him, and while I thought with
something akin to fear of the immensity of his contempt for the
young man under examination, he was probably holding silent
inquiry into his own case. The verdict must have been of unmiti-
gated guilt, and he took the secret of the evidence with him in that
leap into the sea. If I understand anything of men, the matter was
no doubt of the gravest import, one of those trifles that awaken
ideas -- start into life some thought with which a man unused to
such a companionship finds it impossible to live. I am in a position
to know that it wasn't money, and it wasn't drink, and it wasn't
woman. He jumped overboard at sea barely a week after the end of
the inquiry, and less than three days after leaving port on his out-
ward passage; as though on that exact spot in the midst of waters
he had suddenly perceived the gates of the other world flung open
wide for his reception.
  'Yet it was not a sudden impulse. His grey-headed mate, a first-
rate sailor and a nice old chap with strangers, but in his relations
with his commander the surliest chief officer I've ever seen, would
tell the story with tears in his eyes. It appears that when he came
on deck in the morning Brierly had been writing in the chart-room.
"It was ten minutes to four," he said, "and the middle watch was
not relieved yet of course. He heard my voice on the bridge speaking
to the second mate, and called me in. I was loth to go, and that's
the truth, Captain Marlow -- I couldn't stand poor Captain Brierly,
I tell you with shame; we never know what a man is made of. He
had been promoted over too many heads, not counting my own,
and he had a damnable trick of making you feel small, nothing but
by the way he said 'Good morning.' I never addressed him, sir, but
on matters of duty, and then it was as much as I could do to keep
a civil tongue in my head." (He flattered himself there. I often
wondered how Brierly could put up with his manners for more than
half a voyage.) "I've a wife and children," he went on, "and I
had been ten years in the Company, always expecting the next
command -- more fool I. Says he, just like this: 'Come in here, Mr.
Jones,' in that swagger voice of his -- 'Come in here, Mr. lones.' In
I went. 'We'll lay down her position,' says he, stooping over the
chart, a pair of dividers in hand. By the standing orders, the officer
going off duty would have done that at the end of his watch. How-
ever, I said nothing, and looked on while he marked off the ship's
position with a tiny cross and wrote the date and the time. I can see
him this moment writing his neat figures: seventeen, eight, four A.
M. The year would be written in red ink at the top of the chart. He
never used his charts more than a year, Captain Brierly didn't. I've
the chart now. When he had done he stands looking down at the
mark he had made and smiling to himself, then looks up at me.
'Thirty-two miles more as she goes,' says he, 'and then we shall be
clear, and you may alter the course twenty degrees to the south-
ward.'
  ' "We were passing to the north of the Hector Bank that voyage.
I said, 'All right, sir,' wondering what he was fussing about, since
I had to call him before altering the course anyhow. lust then eight
bells were struck: we came out on the bridge, and the second mate
before going off mentions in the usual way -- 'Seventy-one on the
log.' Captain Brierly looks at the compass and then all round. It
was dark and clear, and all the stars were out as plain as on a frosty
night in high latitudes. Suddenly he says with a sort of a little sigh:
'I am going aft, and shall set the log at zero for you myself, so that
there can be no mistake. Thirty-two miles more on this course and
then you are safe. Let's see -- the correction on the log is six per
cent. additive; say, then, thirty by the dial to run, and you may
come twenty degrees to starboard at once. No use losing any dis-
tance -- is there?' I had never heard him talk so much at a stretch,
and to no purpose as it seemed to me. I said nothing. He went down
the ladder, and the dog, that was always at his heels whenever he
moved, night or day, followed, sliding nose first, after him. I heard
his boot-heels tap, tap on the after-deck, then he stopped and spoke
to the dog -- 'Go back, Rover. On the bridge, boy! Go on -- get.'
Then he calls out to me from the dark, 'Shut that dog up in the
chart-room, Mr. Jones -- will you?'
  ' "This was the last time I heard his voice, Captain Marlow.
These are the last words he spoke in the hearing of any living human
being, sir." At this point the old chap's voice got quite unsteady.
"He was afraid the poor brute would jump after him, don't you
see?" he pursued with a quaver. "Yes, Captain Marlow. He set the
log for me; he -- would you believe it? -- he put a drop of oil in it
too. There was the oil-feeder where he left it near by. The boat --
swain's mate got the hose along aft to wash down at half-past five;
by-and-by he knocks off and runs up on the bridge -- 'Will you
please come aft, Mr. Jones,' he says. 'There's a funny thing. I don't
like to touch it.' It was Captain Brierly's gold chronometer watch
carefully hung under the rail by its chain.
  ' "As soon as my eyes fell on it something struck me, and I knew,
sir. My legs got soft under me. It was as if I had seen him go over;
and I could tell how far behind he was left too. The taffrail-log
marked eighteen miles and three-quarters, and four iron belaying-
pins were missing round the mainmast. Put them in his pockets to
help him down, I suppose; but, Lord! what's four iron pins to a
powerful man like Captain Brierly. Maybe his confidence in himself
was just shook a bit at the last. That's the only sign of fluster he
gave in his whole life, I should think; but I am ready to answer for
him, that once over he did not try to swim a stroke, the same as he
would have had pluck enough to keep up all day long on the bare
chance had he fallen overboard accidentally. Yes, sir. He was
second to none -- if he said so himself, as I heard him once. He had
written two letters in the middle watch, one to the Company and
the other to me. He gave me a lot of instructions as to the passage --
I had been in the trade before he was out of his time -- and no end
of hints as to my conduct with our people in Shanghai, so that I
should keep the command of the Ossa. He wrote like a father would
to a favourite son, Captain Marlow, and I was five-and-twenty years
his senior and had tasted salt water before he was fairly breeched.
In his letter to the owners -- it was left open for me to see -- he said
that he had always done his duty by them -- up to that moment --
and even now he was not betraying their confidence, since he was
leaving the ship to as competent a seaman as could be found --
meaning me, sir, meaning me! He told them that if the last act of
his life didn't take away all his credit with them, they would give
weight to my faithful service and to his warm recommendation,
when about to fill the vacancy made by his death. And much more
like this, sir. I couldn't believe my eyes. It made me feel queer all
over," went on the old chap, in great perturbation, and squashing
something in the corner of his eye with the end of a thumb as broad
as a spatula. "You would think, sir, he had jumped overboard only
to give an unlucky man a last show to get on. What with the shock
of him going in this awful rash way, and thinking myself a made
man by that chance, I was nearly off my chump for a week. But no
fear. The captain of the Pelion was shifted into the Ossa -- came
aboard in Shanghai -- a little popinjay, sir, in a grey check suit, with
his hair parted in the middle. 'Aw -- I am -- aw -- your new captain,
Mister -- Mister -- aw -- Jones.' He was drowned in scent -- fairly
stunk with it, Captain Marlow. I dare say it was the look I gave him
that made him stammer. He mumbled something about my natural
disappointment -- I had better know at once that his chief officer
got the promotion to the Pelion -- he had nothing to do with it, of
course -- supposed the office knew best -- sorry.... Says I, 'Don't
you mind old Jones, sir; dam' his soul, he's used to it.' I could see
directly I had shocked his delicate ear, and while we sat at our first
tiffin together he began to find fault in a nasty manner with this and
that in the ship. I never heard such a voice out of a Punch and Judy
show. I set my teeth hard, and glued my eyes to my plate, and held
my peace as long as I could; but at last I had to say something.
Up he jumps tiptoeing, ruffling all his pretty plumes, like a little
fighting-cock. 'You'll find you have a different person to deal with
than the late Captain Brierly.' 'I've found it,' says I, very glum, but
pretending to be mighty busy with my steak. 'You are an old ruffian,
Mister -- aw -- Jones; and what's more, you are known for an old
ruffian in the employ,' he squeaks at me. The damned bottle-wash-
ers stood about listening with their mouths stretched from ear to
ear. 'I may be a hard case,' answers I, 'but I ain't so far gone as to
put up with the sight of you sitting in Captain Brierly's chair. ' With
that I lay down my knife and fork. 'You would like to sit in it
yourself -- that's where the shoe pinches,' he sneers. I left the saloon,
got my rags together, and was on the quay with all my dunnage
about my feet before the stevedores had turned to again. Yes.
Adrift -- on shore -- after ten years' service -- and with a poor woman
and four children six thousand miles off depending on my half-pay
for every mouthful they ate. Yes, sir! I chucked it rather than hear
Captain Brierly abused. He left me his night-glasses -- here they are;
and he wished me to take care of the dog -- here he is. Hallo, Rover,
poor boy. Where's the captain, Rover?" The dog looked up at us
with mournful yellow eyes, gave one desolate bark, and crept under
the table.
  'All this was taking place, more than two years afterwards, on
board that nautical ruin the Fire-Queen this Jones had got charge
of -- quite by a funny accident, too -- from Matherson -- mad Mather-
son they generally called him -- the same who used to hang out in
Hai-phong, you know, before the occupation days. The old chap
snuffled on--
  ' "Ay, sir, Captain Brierly will be remembered here, if there's no
other place on earth. I wrote fully to his father and did not get a
word in reply -- neither Thank you, nor Go to the devil! -- nothing!
Perhaps they did not want to know."
  'The sight of that watery-eyed old Jones mopping his bald head
with a red cotton handkerchief, the sorrowing yelp of the dog, the
squalor of that fly-blown cuddy which was the only shrine of his
memory, threw a veil of inexpressibly mean pathos over Brierly's
remembered figure, the posthumous revenge of fate for that belief
in his own splendour which had almost cheated his life of its legit-
imate terrors. Almost! Perhaps wholly. Who can tell what flattering
view he had induced himself to take of his own suicide?
  ' "Why did he commit the rash act, Captain Marlow -- can you
think?" asked Jones, pressing his palms together. "Why? It beats
me! Why?" He slapped his low and wrinkled forehead. "If he had
been poor and old and in debt -- and never a show -- or else mad.
But he wasn't of the kind that goes mad, not he. You trust me.
What a mate don't know about his skipper isn't worth knowing.
Young, healthy, well off, no cares.... I sit here sometimes think-
ing, thinking, till my head fairly begins to buzz. There was some
reason."
  ' "You may depend on it, Captain Jones," said I, "it wasn't
anything that would have disturbed much either of us two," I said;
and then, as if a light had been flashed into the muddle of his brain,
poor old Jones found a last word of amazing profundity. He blew
his nose, nodding at me dolefully: "Ay, ay! neither you nor I, sir,
had ever thought so much of ourselves."
  'Of course the recollection of my last conversation with Brierly
is tinged with the knowledge of his end that followed so close upon
it. I spoke with him for the last time during the progress of the
inquiry. It was after the first adjournment, and he came up with me
in the street. He was in a state of irritation, which I noticed with
surprise, his usual behaviour when he condescended to converse
being perfectly cool, with a trace of amused tolerance, as if the
existence of his interlocutor had been a rather good joke. "They
caught me for that inquiry, you see," he began, and for a while
enlarged complainingly upon the inconveniences of daily attend-
ance in court. "And goodness knows how long it will last. Three
days, I suppose." I heard him out in silence; in my then opinion it
was a way as good as another of putting on side. "What's the use
of it? It is the stupidest set-out you can imagine," he pursued hotly.
I remarked that there was no option. He interrupted me with a sort
of pent-up violence. "I feel like a fool all the time." I looked up at
him. This was going very far -- for Brierly -- when talking of Brierly.
He stopped short, and seizing the lapel of my coat, gave it a slight
tug. "Why are we tormenting that young chap?" he asked. This
question chimed in so well to the tolling of a certain thought of
mine that, with the image of the absconding renegade in my eye, I
answered at once, "Hanged if I know, unless it be that he lets you."
I was astonished to see him fall into line, so to speak, with that
utterance, which ought to have been tolerably cryptic. He said
angrily, "Why, yes. Can't he see that wretched skipper of his has
cleared out? What does he expect to happen? Nothing can save him.
He's done for." We walked on in silence a few steps. "Why eat all
that dirt?" he exclaimed, with an oriental energy of expression --
about the only sort of energy you can find a trace of east of the fiftieth
meridian. I wondered greatly at the direction of his thoughts, but
now I strongly suspect it was strictly in character: at bottom poor
Brierly must have been thinking of himself. I pointed out to him
that the skipper of the Patna was known to have feathered his
nest pretty well, and could procure almost anywhere the means
of getting away. With Jim it was otherwise: the Government was
keeping him in the Sailors' Home for the time being, and probably
he hadn't a penny in his pocket to bless himself with. It costs some
money to run away. "Does it? Not always," he said, with a bitter
laugh, and to some further remark of mine -- "Well, then, let him
creep twenty feet underground and stay there! By heavens! I
would." I don't know why his tone provoked me, and I said, "There
is a kind of courage in facing it out as he does, knowing very well
that if he went away nobody would trouble to run after hmm."
"Courage be hanged!" growled Brierly. "That sort of courage is of
no use to keep a man straight, and I don't care a snap for such
courage. If you were to say it was a kind of cowardice now -- of
softness. I tell you what, I will put up two hundred rupees if you
put up another hundred and undertake to make the beggar clear
out early to-morrow morning. The fellow's a gentleman if he ain't
fit to be touched -- he will understand. He must! This infernal
publicity is too shocking: there he sits while all these confounded
natives, serangs, lascars, quartermasters, are giving evidence that's
enough to burn a man to ashes with shame. This is abominable.
Why, Marlow, don't you think, don't you feel, that this is abomin-
able; don't you now -- come -- as a seaman? If he went away all this
would stop at once." Brierly said these words with a most unusual
animation, and made as if to reach after his pocket-book. I
restrained him, and declared coldly that the cowardice of these four
men did not seem to me a matter of such great importance. "And
you call yourself a seaman, I suppose," he pronounced angrily. I
said that's what I called myself, and I hoped I was too. He heard
me out, and made a gesture with his big arm that seemed to deprive
me of my individuality, to push me away into the crowd. "The
worst of it," he said, "is that all you fellows have no sense of dignity;
you don't think enough of what you are supposed to be."
  'We had been walking slowly meantime, and now stopped
opposite the harbour office, in sight of the very spot from which
the immense captain of the Patna had vanished as utterly as a tiny
feather blown away in a hurricane. I smiled. Brierly went on: "This
is a disgrace. We've got all kinds amongst us -- some anointed scoun-
drels in the lot; but, hang it, we must preserve professional decency
or we become no better than so many tinkers going about loose. We
are trusted. Do you understand? -- trusted! Frankly, I don't care a
snap for all the pilgrims that ever came out of Asia, but a decent
man would not have behaved like this to a full cargo of old rags in
bales. We aren't an organised body of men, and the only thing that
holds us together is just the name for that kind of decency. Such an
affair destroys one's confidence. A man may go pretty near through
his whole sea-life without any call to show a stiff upper lip. But
when the call comes . . . Aha! . . . If I . . ."
  'He broke off, and in a changed tone, "I'll give you two hundred
rupees now, Marlow, and you just talk to that chap. Confound him!
I wish he had never come out here. Fact is, I rather think some of
my people know his. The old man's a parson, and I remember now
I met him once when staying with my cousin in Essex last year. If
I am not mistaken, the old chap seemed rather to fancy his sailor
son. Horrible. I can't do it myself -- but you . . ."
  'Thus, apropos of Jim, I had a glimpse of the real Brierly a few
days before he committed his reality and his sham together to the
keeping of the sea. Of course I declined to meddle. The tone of this
last "but you" (poor Brierly couldn't help it), that seemed to imply
I was no more noticeable than an insect, caused me to look at the
proposal with indignation, and on account of that provocation, or
for some other reason, I became positive in my mind that the inquiry
was a severe punishment to that Jim, and that his facing it -- practi-
cally of his own free will -- was a redeeming feature in his abominable
case. I hadn't been so sure of it before. Brierly went off in a huff.
At the time his state of mind was more of a mystery to me than it
is now.
  'Next day, coming into court late, I sat by myself. Of course I
could not forget the conversation I had with Brierly, and now I had
them both under my eyes. The demeanour of one suggested gloomy
impudence and of the other a contemptuous boredom; yet one atti-
tude might not have been truer than the other, and I was aware that
one was not true. Brierly was not bored -- he was exasperated; and
if so, then Jim might not have been impudent. According to my
theory he was not. I imagined he was hopeless. Then it was that our
glances met. They met, and the look he gave me was discouraging
of any intention I might have had to speak to him. Upon either
hypothesis -- insolence or despair -- I felt I could be of no use to
him. This was the second day of the proceedings. Very soon after
that exchange of glances the inquiry was adjourned again to the
next day. The white men began to troop out at once. Jim had been
told to stand down some time before, and was able to leave amongst
the first. I saw his broad shoulders and his head outlined in the light
of the door, and while I made my way slowly out talking with some
one -- some stranger who had addressed me casually -- I could see
him from within the court-room resting both elbows on the balus-
uade of the verandah and turning his back on the small stream of
people trickling down the few steps. There was a murmur of voices
and a shuffle of boots.
  'The next case was that of assault and battery committed upon a
money-lender, I believe; and the defendant -- a venerable villager
with a straight white beard -- sat on a mat just outside the door with
his sons, daughters, sons-in-law, their wives, and, I should think,
half the population of his village besides, squatting or standing
around him. A slim dark woman, with part of her back and one
black shoulder bared, and with a thin gold ring in her nose, sud-
denly began to talk in a high-pitched, shrewish tone. The man with
me instinctively looked up at her. We were then just through the
door, passing behind Jim's burly back.
  'Whether those villagers had brought the yellow dog with them,
I don't know. Anyhow, a dog was there, weaving himself in and
out amongst people's legs in that mute stealthy way native dogs
have, and my companion stumbled over him. The dog leaped away
without a sound; the man, raising his voice a little, said with a slow
laugh, "Look at that wretched cur," and directly afterwards we
became separated by a lot of people pushing in. I stood back for a
moment against the wall while the stranger managed to get down
the steps and disappeared. I saw Jim spin round. He made a step
forward and barred my way. We were alone; he glared at me with
an air of stubborn resolution. I became aware I was being held up,
so to speak, as if in a wood. The verandah was empty by then, the
noise and movement in court had ceased: a great silence fell upon
the building, in which, somewhere far within, an oriental voice
began to whine abjectly. The dog, in the very act of trying to sneak
in at the door, sat down hurriedly to hunt for fleas.
  ' "Did you speak to me?" asked Jim very low, and bending for-
ward, not so much towards me but at me, if you know what I mean.
I said "No" at once. Something in the sound of that quiet tone of
his warned me to be on my defence. I watched him. It was very
much like a meeting in a wood, only more uncertain in its issue,
since he could possibly want neither my money nor my life -- nothing
that I could simply give up or defend with a clear conscience. "You
say you didn't," he said, very sombre. "But I heard." "Some mis-
take," I protested, utterly at a loss, and never taking my eyes off
him. To watch his face was like watching a darkening sky before a
clap of thunder, shade upon shade imperceptibly coming on, the
doom growing mysteriously intense in the calm of maturing viol-
ence.
  ' "As far as I know, I haven't opened my lips in your hearing,"
I affirmed with perfect truth. I was getting a little angry, too, at the
absurdity of this encounter. It strikes me now I have never in my
life been so near a beating -- I mean it literally; a beating with fists.
I suppose I had some hazy prescience of that eventuality being in
the air. Not that he was actively threatening me. On the contrary,
he was strangely passive -- don't you know? but he was lowering,
and, though not exceptionally big, he looked generally fit to demol-
ish a wall. The most reassuring symptom I noticed was a kind of
slow and ponderous hesitation, which I took as a tribute to the
evident sincerity of my manner and of my tone. We faced each
other. In the court the assault case was proceeding. I caught the
words: "Well -- buffalo -- stick -- in the greatness of my fear...."
  ' "What did you mean by staring at me all the morning?" said
Jim at last. He looked up and looked down again. "Did you expect
us all to sit with downcast eyes out of regard for your susceptibili-
ties?" I retorted sharply. I was not going to submit meekly to any
of his nonsense. He raised his eyes again, and this time continued
to look me straight in the face. "No. That's all right," he pro-
nounced with an air of deliberating with himself upon the truth of
this statement -- "that's all right. I am going through with that.
Only" -- and there he spoke a little faster -- "I won't let any man
call me names outside this court. There was a fellow with you. You
spoke to him -- oh yes -- I know; 'tis all very fine. You spoke to him,
but you meant me to hear...."
  'I assured him he was under some extraordinary delusion. I had
no conception how it came about. "You thought I would be afraid
to resent this," he said, with just a faint tinge of bitterness. I was
interested enough to discern the slightest shades of expression, but
I was not in the least enlightened; yet I don't know what in these
words, or perhaps just the intonation of that phrase, induced me
suddenly to make all possible allowances for him. I ceased to be
annoyed at my unexpected predicament. It was some mistake on
his part; he was blundering, and I had an intuition that the blunder
was of an odious, of an unfortunate nature. I was anxious to end
this scene on grounds of decency, just as one is anxious to cut short
some unprovoked and abominable confidence. The funniest part
was, that in the midst of all these considerations of the higher order
I was conscious of a certain trepidation as to the possibility -- nay,
likelihood -- of this encounter ending in some disreputable brawl
which could not possibly be explained, and would make me ridicu-
lous. I did not hanker after a three days' celebrity as the man who
got a black eye or something of the sort from the mate of the Patna.
He, in all probability, did not care what he did, or at any rate would
be fully justified in his own eyes. It took no magician to see he was
amazingly angry about something, for all his quiet and even torpid
demeanour. I don't deny I was extremely desirous to pacify him at
all costs, had I only known what to do. But I didn't know, as you
may well imagine. It was a blackness without a single gleam. We
confronted each other in silence. He hung fire for about fifteen
seconds, then made a step nearer, and I made ready to ward off a
blow, though I don't think I moved a muscle. "If you were as big
as two men and as strong as six," he said very softly, "I would tell
you what I think of you. You . . ." "Stop!" I exclaimed. This
checked him for a second. "Before you tell me what you think of
me," I went on quickly, "will you kindly tell me what it is I've
said or done?" During the pause that ensued he surveyed me with
indignation, while I made supernatural efforts of memory, in which
I was hindered by the oriental voice within the court-room expostul-
ating with impassioned volubility against a charge of falsehood.
Then we spoke almost together. "I will soon show you I am not,"
he said, in a tone suggestive of a crisis. "I declare I don't know," I
protested earnestly at the same time. He tried to crush me by the
scorn of his glance. "Now that you see I am not afraid you try to
crawl out of it," he said. "Who's a cur now -- hey?" Then, at last,
I understood.
  'He had been scanning my features as though looking for a place
where he would plant his fist. "I will allow no man," . . . he mum-
bled threateningly. It was, indeed, a hideous mistake; he had given
himself away utterly. I can't give you an idea how shocked I was. I
suppose he saw some reflection of my feelings in my face, because
his expression changed just a little. "Good God!" I stammered,
"you don't think I . . ." "But I am sure I've heard," he persisted,
raising his voice for the first time since the beginning of this deplor-
able scene. Then with a shade of disdain he added, "It wasn't you,
then? Very well; I'll find the other." "Don't be a fool," I cried in
exasperation; "it wasn't that at all." "I've heard," he said again
with an unshaken and sombre perseverance.
  'There may be those who could have laughed at his pertinacity;
I didn't. Oh, I didn't! There had never been a man so mercilessly
shown up by his own natural impulse. A single word had stripped
him of his discretion -- of that discretion which is more necessary
to the decencies of our inner being than clothing is to the decorum
of our body. "Don't be a fool," I repeated. "But the other man said
it, you don't deny that?" he pronounced distinctly, and looking in
my face without flinching. "No, I don't deny," said I, returning
his gaze. At last his eyes followed downwards the direction of my
pointing finger. He appeared at first uncomprehending, then con-
founded, and at last amazed and scared as though a dog had been
a monster and he had never seen a dog before. "Nobody dreamt of
insulting you," I said.
  'He contemplated the wretched animal, that moved no more than
an effigy: it sat with ears pricked and its sharp muzzle pointed
into the doorway, and suddenly snapped at a fly like a piece of
mechanism.
  'I looked at him. The red of his fair sunburnt complexion deep-
ened suddenly under the down of his cheeks, invaded his forehead,
spread to the roots of his curly hair. His ears became intensely
crimson, and even the clear blue of his eyes was darkened many
shades by the rush of blood to his head. His lips pouted a little,
trembling as though he had been on the point of bursting into tears.
I perceived he was incapable of pronouncing a word from the excess
of his humiliation. From disappointment too -- who knows? Perhaps
he looked forward to that hammering he was going to give me
for rehabilitation, for appeasement? Who can tell what relief he
expected from this chance of a row? He was naive enough to expect
anything; but he had given himself away for nothing in this case.
He had been frank with himself -- let alone with me -- in the wild
hope of arriving in that way at some effective refutation, and the
stars had been ironically unpropitious. He made an inarticulate
noise in his throat like a man imperfectly stunned by a blow on the
head. It was pitiful.
  'I didn't catch up again with him till well outside the gate. I had
even to trot a bit at the last, but when, out of breath at his elbow,
I taxed him with running away, he said, "Never!" and at once
turned at bay. I explained I never meant to say he was running away
from me. "From no man -- from not a single man on earth," he
affirmed with a stubborn mien. I forbore to point out the one obvi-
ous exception which would hold good for the bravest of us; I
thought he would find out by himself very soon. He looked at me
patiently while I was thinking of something to say, but I could find
nothing on the spur of the moment, and he began to walk on. I kept
up, and, anxious not to lose him, I said hurriedly that I couldn't
think of leaving him under a false impression of my -- of my -- I
stammered. The stupidity of the phrase appalled me while I was
trying to finish it, but the power of sentences has nothing to do with
their sense or the logic of their construction. My idiotic mumble
seemed to please him. He cut it short by saying, with courteous
placidity that argued an immense power of self-control or else a
wonderful elasticity of spirits -- "Altogether my mistake." I mar-
velled greatly at this expression: he might have been alluding to
some trifling occurrence. Hadn't he understood its deplorable
meaning? "You may well forgive me," he continued, and went on
a little moodily, "All these staring people in court seemed such fools
that -- that it might have been as I supposed."
  'This opened suddenly a new view of him to my wonder. I looked
at him curiously and met his unabashed and impenetrable eyes. "I
can't put up with this kind of thing," he said, very simply, "and I
don't mean to. In court it's different; I've got to stand that -- and I
can do it too."
  'I don't pretend I understood him. The views he let me have of
himself were like those glimpses through the shifting rents in a
thick fog -- bits of vivid and vanishing detail, giving no connected
idea of the general aspect of a country. They fed one's curiosity
without satisfying it; they were no good for purposes of orientation.
Upon the whole he was misleading. That's how I summed him up
to myself after he left me late in the evening. I had been staying at
the Malabar House for a few days, and on my pressing invitation
he dined with me there.'

                       CHAPTER 7

  'An outward-bound mail-boat had come in that afternoon, and
the big dining-room of the hotel was more than half full of people
with a-hundred-pounds-round-the-world tickets in their pockets.
There were married couples looking domesticated and bored with
each other in the midst of their travels; there were small parties
and large parties, and lone individuals dining solemnly or feasting
boisterously, but all thinking, conversing, joking, or scowling as
was their wont at home; and just as intelligently receptive of new
impressions as their trunks upstairs. Henceforth they would be
labelled as having passed through this and that place, and so would
be their luggage. They would cherish this distinction of their per-
sons, and preserve the gummed tickets on their portmanteaus as
documentary evidence, as the only permanent trace of their improv-
ing enterprise. The dark-faced servants tripped without noise over
the vast and polished floor; now and then a girl's laugh would be
heard, as innocent and empty as her mind, or, in a sudden hush of
crockery, a few words in an affected drawl from some wit embroid-
ering for the benefit of a grinning tableful the last funny story of
shipboard scandal. Two nomadic old maids, dressed up to kill,
worked acrimoniously through the bill of fare, whispering to each
other with faded lips, wooden-faced and bizarre, like two sumptu-
ous scarecrows. A little wine opened Jim's heart and loosened his
tongue. His appetite was good, too, I noticed. He seemed to have
buried somewhere the opening episode of our acquaintance. It was
like a thing of which there would be no more question in this world.
And all the time I had before me these blue, boyish eyes looking
straight into mine, this young face, these capable shoulders, the
open bronzed forehead with a white line under the roots of cluster-
ing fair hair, this appearance appealing at sight to all my sympathies:
this frank aspect, the artless smile, the youthful seriousness. He
was of the right sort; he was one of us. He talked soberly, with a
sort of composed unreserve, and with a quiet bearing that might
have been the outcome of manly self-control, of impudence, of
callousness, of a colossal unconsciousness, of a gigantic deception.
Who can tell! From our tone we might have been discussing a third
person, a football match, last year's weather. My mind floated in a
sea of conjectures till the turn of the conversation enabled me,
without being offensive, to remark that, upon the whole, this
inquiry must have been pretty trying to him. He darted his arm
across the tablecloth, and clutching my hand by the side of my
plate, glared fLxedly. I was startled. "It must be awfully hard," I
stammered, confused by this display of speechless feeling. "It is --
hell," he burst out in a muffled voice.
  'This movement and these words caused two well-groomed male
globe-trotters at a neighbouring table to look up in alarm from their
iced pudding. I rose, and we passed into the front gallery for coffee
and cigars.
  'On little octagon tables candles burned in glass globes; clumps
of stiff-leaved plants separated sets of cosy wicker chairs; and
between the pairs of columns, whose reddish shafts caught in a
long row the sheen from the tall windows, the night, glittering and
sombre, seemed to hang like a splendid drapery. The riding lights
of ships winked afar like setting stars, and the hills across the road-
stead resembled rounded black masses of arrested thunder-clouds.
  ' "I couldn't clear out," Jim began. "The skipper did -- that's all
very well for him. I couldn't, and I wouldn't. They all got out of it
in one way or another, but it wouldn't do for me."
  'I listened with concentrated attention, not daring to stir in my
chair; I wanted to know -- and to this day I don't know, I can only
guess. He would be confident and depressed all in the same breath,
as if some conviction of innate blamelessness had checked the truth
writhing within him at every turn. He began by saying, in the tone
in which a man would admit his inability to jump a twenty-foot
wall, that he could never go home now; and this declaration recalled
to my mind what Brierly had said, "that the old parson in Essex
seemed to fancy his sailor son not a little."
  'I can't tell you whether Jim knew he was especially "fancied,"
but the tone of his references to "my Dad" was calculated to give
me a notion that the good old rural dean was about the finest man
that ever had been worried by the cares of a large family since the
beginning of the world. This, though never stated, was implied
with an anxiety that there should be no mistake about it, which was
really very true and charming, but added a poignant sense of lives
far off to the other elements of the story. "He has seen it all in the
home papers by this time," said Jim. "I can never face the poor old
chap." I did not dare to lift my eyes at this till I heard him add, "I
could never explain. He wouldn't understand." Then I looked up.
He was smoking reflectively, and after a moment, rousing himself,
began to talk again. He discovered at once a desire that I should not
confound him with his partners in -- in crime, let us call it. He was
not one of them; he was altogether of another sort. I gave no sign
of dissent. I had no intention, for the sake of barren truth, to rob
him of the smallest particle of any saving grace that would come in
his way. I didn't know how much of it he believed himself. I didn't
know what he was playing up to -- if he was playing up to anything
at all -- and I suspect he did not know either; for it is my belief no
man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from
the grim shadow of self-knowledge. I made no sound all the time
he was wondering what he had better do after "that stupid inquiry
was over."
  'Apparently he shared Brierly's contemptuous opinion of these
proceedings ordained by law. He would not know where to turn,
he confessed, clearly thinking aloud rather than talking to me. Cer-
tificate gone, career broken, no money to get away, no work that
he could obtain as far as he could see. At home he could perhaps
get something; but it meant going to his people for help, and that
he would not do. He saw nothing for it but ship before the mast --
could get perhaps a quartermaster's billet in some steamer. Would
do for a quartermaster.... "Do you think you would?" I asked
pitilessly. He jumped up, and going to the stone balustrade looked
out into the night. In a moment he was back, towering above my
chair with his youthful face clouded yet by the pain of a conquered
emotion. He had understood very well I did not doubt his ability
to steer a ship. In a voice that quavered a bit he asked me why did
I say that? I had been "no end kind" to him. I had not even laughed
at him when -- here he began to mumble -- "that mistake, you know --
made a confounded ass of myself." I broke in by saying rather
warmly that for me such a mistake was not a matter to laugh at. He
sat down and drank deliberately some coffee, emptying the small
cup to the last drop. "That does not mean I admit for a moment
the cap fitted," he declared distinctly. "No?" I said. "No," he
affirmed with quiet decision. "Do you know what you would have
done? Do you? And you don't think yourself" . . . he gulped some-
thing . . . "you don't think yourself a -- a -- cur?"
  'And with this -- upon my honour! -- he looked up at me inquisi-
tively. It was a question it appears -- a bond-fide question! However,
he didn't wait for an answer. Before I could recover he went on,
with his eyes straight before him, as if reading off something written
on the body of the night. "It is all in being ready. I wasn't; not --
not then. I don't want to excuse myself; but I would like to explain --
I would like somebody to understand -- somebody -- one person at
least! You! Why not you?"
  'It was solemn, and a little ridiculous too, as they always are,
those struggles of an individual trying to save from the fire his idea
of what his moral identity should be, this precious notion of a
convention, only one of the rules of the game, nothing more, but
all the same so terribly effective by its assumption of unlimited
power over natural instincts, by the awful penalties of its failure.
He began his story quietly enough. On board that Dale Line
steamer that had picked up these four floating in a boat upon the
discreet sunset glow of the sea, they had been after the first day
looked askance upon. The fat skipper told some story, the others
had been silent, and at first it had been accepted. You don't cross-
examine poor castaways you had the good luck to save, if not from
cruel death, then at least from cruel suffering. Afterwards, with
time to think it over, it might have struck the officers of the Avon-
dale that there was "something fishy" in the affair; but of course
they would keep their doubts to themselves. They had picked up
the captain, the mate, and two engineers of the steamer Patna sunk
at sea, and that, very properly, was enough for them. I did not ask
Jim about the nature of his feelings during the ten days he spent on
board. From the way he narrated that part I was at liberty to infer
he was partly stunned by the discovery he had made -- the discovery
about himself -- and no doubt was at work trying to explain it away
to the only man who was capable of appreciating all its tremendous
magnitude. You must understand he did not try to minimise its
importance. Of that I am sure; and therein lies his distinction. As
to what sensations he experienced when he got ashore and heard
the unforeseen conclusion of the tale in which he had taken such
a pitiful part, he told me nothing of them, and it is difficult to
imagine.
  'I wonder whether he felt the ground cut from under his feet? I
wonder? But no doubt he managed to get a fresh foothold very
soon. He was ashore a whole fortnight waiting in the Sailors' Home,
and as there were six or seven men staying there at the time, I had
heard of him a little. Their languid opinion seemed to be that, in
addition to his other shortcomings, he was a sulky brute. He had
passed these days on the verandah, buried in a long chair, and
coming out of his place of sepulture only at meal-times or late at
night, when he wandered on the quays all by himself, detached
from his surroundings, irresolute and silent, like a ghost without a
home to haunt. "I don't think I've spoken three words to a living
soul in all that time," he said, making me very sorry for him; and
directly he added, "One of these fellows would have been sure to
blurt out something I had made up my mind not to put up with,
and I didn't want a row. No! Not then. I was too -- too . . . I had
no heart for it." "So that bulkhead held out after all," I remarked
cheerfully. "Yes," he murmured, "it held. And yet I swear to you
I felt it bulge under my hand. " "It's extraordinary what strains old
iron will stand sometimes," I said. Thrown back in his seat, his legs
stiffly out and arms hanging down, he nodded slightly several times.
You could not conceive a sadder spectacle. Suddenly he lifted his
head; he sat up; he slapped his thigh. "Ah! what a chance missed!
My God! what a chance missed!" he blazed out, but the ring of the
last "missed" resembled a cry wrung out by pain.
  'He was silent again with a still, far-away look of fierce yearning
after that missed distinction, with his nostrils for an instant dilated,
sniffing the intoxicating breath of that wasted opportunity. If you
think I was either surprised or shocked you do me an injustice in
more ways than one! Ah, he was an imaginative beggar! He would
give himself away; he would give himself up. I could see in his
glance darted into the night all his inner being carried on, projected
headlong into the fanciful realm of recklessly heroic aspirations. He
had no leisure to regret what he had lost, he was so wholly and
naturally concerned for what he had failed to obtain. He was very
far away from me who watched him across three feet of space. With
every instant he was penetrating deeper into the impossible world
of romantic achievements. He got to the heart of it at last! A strange
look of beatitude overspread his features, his eyes sparkled in the
light of the candle burning between us; he positively smiled! He
had penetrated to the very heart -- to the very heart. It was an
ecstatic smile that your faces -- or mine either -- will never wear, my
dear boys. I whisked him back by saying, "If you had stuck to the
ship, you mean!"
  'He turned upon me, his eyes suddenly amazed and full of pain,
with a bewildered, startled, suffering face, as though he had tum-
bled down from a star. Neither you nor I will ever look like this on
any man. He shuddered profoundly, as if a cold finger-tip had
touched his heart. Last of all he sighed.
  'I was not in a merciful mood. He provoked one by his contradic-
tory indiscretions. "It is unfortunate you didn't know beforehand!"
I said with every unkind intention; but the perfidious shaft fell
harmless -- dropped at his feet like a spent arrow, as it were, and he
did not think of picking it up. Perhaps he had not even seen it.
Presently, lolling at ease, he said, "Dash it all! I tell you it bulged.
I was holding up my lamp along the angle-iron in the lower deck
when a flake of rust as big as the palm of my hand fell off the plate,
all of itself." He passed his hand over his forehead. "The thing
stirred and jumped off like something alive while I was looking at
it. " "That made you feel pretty bad," I observed casually. "Do you
suppose," he said, "that I was thinking of myself, with a hundred
and sixty people at my back, all fast asleep in that fore-'tween-deck
alone -- and more of them aft; more on the deck -- sleeping -- knowing
nothing about it -- three times as many as there were boats for,
even if there had been time? I expected to see the iron open out as
I stood there and the rush of water going over them as they lay....
What could I do -- what?"
  'I can easily picture him to myself in the peopled gloom of the
cavernous place, with the light of the globe-lamp falling on a small
portion of the bulkhead that had the weight of the ocean on the
other side, and the breathing of unconscious sleepers in his ears. I
can see him glaring at the iron, startled by the falling rust, overbur-
dened by the knowledge of an imminent death. This, I gathered,
was the second time he had been sent forward by that skipper of
his, who, I rather think, wanted to keep him away from the bridge.
He told me that his first impulse was to shout and straightway
make all those people leap out of sleep into terror; but such an
overwhelming sense of his helplessness came over him that he was
not able to produce a sound. This is, I suppose, what people mean
by the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth. "Too dry," was
the concise expression he used in reference to this state. Without a
sound, then, he scrambled out on deck through the number one
hatch. A windsail rigged down there swung against him acciden-
tally, and he remembered that the light touch of the canvas on his
face nearly knocked him off the hatchway ladder.
  'He confessed that his knees wobbled a good deal as he stood on
the foredeck looking at another sleeping crowd. The engines having
been stopped by that time, the steam was blowing off. Its deep
rumble made the whole night vibrate like a bass string. The ship
trembled to it.
  'He saw here and there a head lifted off a mat, a vague form
uprise in sitting posture, listen sleepily for a moment, sink down
again into the billowy confusion of boxes, steam-winches, venti-
lators. He was aware all these people did not know enough to take
intelligent notice of that strange noise. The ship of iron, the men
with white faces, all the sights, all the sounds, everything on board
to that ignorant and pious multitude was strange alike, and as trust-
worthy as it would for ever remain incomprehensible. It occurred
to him that the fact was fortunate. The idea of it was simply terrible.
  'You must remember he believed, as any other man would have
done in his place, that the ship would go down at any moment; the
bulging, rust-eaten plates that kept back the ocean, fatally must
give way, all at once like an undermined dam, and let in a sudden
and overwhelming flood. He stood still looking at these recumbent
bodies, a doomed man aware of his fate, surveying the silent com-
pany of the dead. They were dead! Nothing could save them! There
were boats enough for half of them perhaps, but there was no time.
No time! No time! It did not seem worth while to open his lips, to
stir hand or foot. Before he could shout three words, or make three
steps, he would be floundering in a sea whitened awfully by the
desperate struggles of human beings, clamorous with the distress
of cries for help. There was no help. He imagined what would
happen perfectly; he went through it all motionless by the hatchway
with the lamp in his hand -- he went through it to the very last
harrowing detail. I think he went through it again while he was
telling me these things he could not tell the court.
  ' "I saw as clearly as I see you now that there was nothing I could
do. It seemed to take all life out of my limbs. I thought I might just
as well stand where I was and wait. I did not think I had many
seconds . . ." Suddenly the steam ceased blowing off. The noise,
he remarked, had been distracting, but the silence at once became
intolerably oppressive.
  ' "I thought I would choke before I got drowned," he said.
  'He protested he did not think of saving himself. The only dis-
tinct thought formed, vanishing, and re-forming in his brain, was:
eight hundred people and seven boats; eight hundred people and
seven boats.
  ' "Somebody was speaking aloud inside my head," he said a little
wildly. "Eight hundred people and seven boats -- and no time! Just
think of it." He leaned towards me across the little table, and I tried
to avoid his stare. "Do you think I was afraid of death?" he asked
in a voice very fierce and low. He brought down his open hand with
a bang that made the coffee-cups dance. "I am ready to swear I was
not -- I was not.... By God -- no!" He hitched himself upright and
crossed his arms; his chin fell on his breast.
  'The soft clashes of crockery reached us faintly through the high
windows. There was a burst of voices, and several men came out in
high good-humour into the gallery. They were exchanging jocular
reminiscences of the donkeys in Cairo. A pale anxious youth step-
ping softly on long legs was being chaffed by a strutting and rubi-
cund globe-trotter about his purchases in the bazaar. "No, really --
do you think I've been done to that extent?" he inquired, very
earnest and deliberate. The band moved away, dropping into chairs
as they went; matches flared, illuminating for a second faces without
the ghost of an expression and the flat glaze of white shirt-fronts;
the hum of many conversations animated with the ardour of feasting
sounded to me absurd and infinitely remote.
  ' "Some of the crew were sleeping on the number one hatch
within reach of my arm," began Jim again.
  'You must know they kept Kalashee watch in that ship, all hands
sleeping through the night, and only the reliefs of quartermasters
and look-out men being called. He was tempted to grip and shake
the shoulder of the nearest lascar, but he didn't. Something held
his arms down along his sides. He was not afraid -- oh no! only he
just couldn't -- that's all. He was not afraid of death perhaps, but
I'll tell you what, he was afraid of the emergency. His confounded
imagination had evoked for him all the horrors of panic, the tram-
pling rush, the pitiful screams, boats swamped -- all the appalling
incidents of a disaster at sea he had ever heard of. He might have
been resigned to die, but I suspect he wanted to die without added
terrors, quietly, in a sort of peaceful trance. A certain readiness to
perish is not so very rare, but it is seldom that you meet men whose
souls, steeled in the impenetrable armour of resolution, are ready
to fight a losing battle to the last; the desire of peace waxes stronger
as hope declines, till at last it conquers the very desire of life. Which
of us here has not observed this, or maybe experienced something
of that feeling in his own person -- this extreme weariness of
emotions, the vanity of effort, the yearning for rest? Those striving
with unreasonable forces know it well -- the shipwrecked castaways
in boats, wanderers lost in a desert, men battling against the
unthinking might of nature, or the stupid brutality of crowds.'

                       CHAPTER 8

  'How long he stood stock-still by the hatch expecting every
moment to feel the ship dip under his feet and the rush of water
take him at the back and toss him like a chip, I cannot say. Not
very long -- two minutes perhaps. A couple of men he could not
make out began to converse drowsily, and also, he could not tell
where, he detected a curious noise of shuffling feet. Above these
faint sounds there was that awful stillness preceding a catastrophe,
that trying silence of the moment before the crash; then it came
into his head that perhaps he would have time to rush along and
cut all the lanyards of the gripes, so that the boats would float off
as the ship went down.
  'The Patna had a long bridge, and all the boats were up there,
four on one side and three on the other -- the smallest of them on
the port side and nearly abreast of the steering-gear. He assured
me, with evident anxiety to be believed, that he had been most
careful to keep them ready for instant service. He knew his duty. I
dare say he was a good enough mate as far as that went. "I always
believed in being prepared for the worst," he commented, staring
anxiously in my face. I nodded my approval of the sound principle,
averting my eyes before the subtle unsoundness of the man.
  'He started unsteadily to run. He had to step over legs, avoid
stumbling against the heads. Suddenly some one caught hold of his
coat from below, and a distressed voice spoke under his elbow. The
light of the lamp he carried in his right hand fell upon an upturned
dark face whose eyes entreated him together with the voice. He had
picked up enough of the language to understand the word water
repeated several times in a tone of insistence, of prayer, almost of
despair. He gave a jerk to get away, and felt an arm embrace his
leg.
  ' "The beggar clung to me like a drowning man," he said
impressively. "Water, water! What water did he mean? What did
he know? As calmly as I could I ordered him to let go. He was
stopping me, time was pressing, other men began to stir; I wanted
time -- time to cut the boats adrift. He got hold of my hand now,
and I felt that he would begin to shout. It flashed upon me it was
enough to start a panic, and I hauled off with my free arm and slung
the lamp in his face. The glass jingled, the light went out, but the
blow made him let go, and I ran off -- I wanted to get at the boats;
I wanted to get at the boats. He leaped after me from behind. I
turned on him. He would not keep quiet; he tried to shout; I had
half throttled him before I made out what he wanted. He wanted
some water -- water to drink; they were on strict allowance, you
know, and he had with him a young boy I had noticed several times.
His child was sick -- and thirsty. He had caught sight of me as I
passed by, and was begging for a little water. That's all. We were
under the bridge, in the dark. He kept on snatching at my wrists;
there was no getting rid of him. I dashed into my berth, grabbed
my water-bottle, and thrust it into his hands. He vanished. I didn't
find out till then how much I was in want of a drink myself." He
leaned on one elbow with a hand over his eyes.
  'I felt a creepy sensation all down my backbone; there was some-
thing peculiar in all this. The fingers of the hand that shaded his
brow trembled slightly. He broke the short silence.
  ' "These things happen only once to a man and . . . Ah! well!
When I got on the bridge at last the beggars were getting one of the
boats off the chocks. A boat! I was running up the ladder when a
heavy blow fell on my shoulder, just missing my head. It didn't
stop me, and the chief engineer -- they had got him out of his bunk
by then -- raised the boat-stretcher again. Somehow I had no mind
to be surprised at anything. All this seemed natural -- and awful --
and awful. I dodged that miserable maniac, lifted him off the deck
as though he had been a little child, and he started whispering in
my arms: 'Don't! don't! I thought you were one of them niggers.'
I flung him away, he skidded along the bridge and knocked the legs
from under the little chap -- the second. The skipper, busy about
the boat, looked round and came at me head down, growling like a
wild beast. I flinched no more than a stone. I was as solid standing
there as this," he tapped lightly with his knuckles the wall beside
his chair. "It was as though I had heard it all, seen it all, gone
through it all twenty times already. I wasn't afraid of them. I drew
back my fist and he stopped short, muttering-
  ' " 'Ah! it's you. Lend a hand quick.'
  ' "That's what he said. Quick! As if anybody could be quick
enough. 'Aren't you going to do something?' I asked. 'Yes. Clear
out,' he snarled over his shoulder.
  ' "I don't think I understood then what he meant. The other two
had picked themselves up by that time, and they rushed together
to the boat. They tramped, they wheezed, they shoved, they cursed
the boat, the ship, each other -- cursed me. All in mutters. I didn't
move, I didn't speak. I watched the slant of the ship. She was as
still as if landed on the blocks in a dry dock -- only she was like
this," He held up his hand, palm under, the tips of the fingers
inclined downwards. "Like this," he repeated. "I could see the line
of the horizon before me, as clear as a bell, above her stem-head; I
could see the water far off there black and sparkling, and still -- still
as a-pond, deadly still, more still than ever sea was before -- more
still than I could bear to look at. Have you watched a ship floating
head down, checked in sinking by a sheet of old iron too rotten to
stand being shored up? Have you? Oh yes, shored up? I thought of
that -- I thought of every mortal thing; but can you shore up a
bulkhead in five minutes -- or in fifty for that matter? Where was I
going to get men that would go down below? And the timber -- the
timber! Would you have had the courage to swing the maul for the
first blow if you had seen that bulkhead? Don't say you would: you
had not seen it; nobody would. Hang it -- to do a thing like that you
must believe there is a chance, one in a thousand, at least, some
ghost of a chance; and you would not have believed. Nobody would
have believed. You think me a cur for standing there, but what
would you have done? What! You can't tell -- nobody can tell. One
must have time to turn round. What would you have me do? Where
was the kindness in making crazy with fright all those people I
could not save single-handed -- that nothing could save? Look here!
As true as I sit on this chair before you . . ."
  'He drew quick breaths at every few words and shot quick glances
at my face, as though in his anguish he were watchful of the effect.
He was not speaking to me, he was only speaking before me, in a
dispute with an invisible personality, an antagonistic and insepar-
able partner of his existence -- another possessor of his soul. These
were issues beyond the competency of a court of inquiry: it was a
subtle and momentous quarrel as to the true essence of life, and did
not want a judge. He wanted an ally, a helper, an accomplice. I felt
the risk I ran of being circumvented, blinded, decoyed, bullied,
perhaps, into taking a definite part in a dispute impossible of
decision if one had to be fair to all the phantoms in possession -- to
the reputable that had its claims and to the disreputable that had
its exigencies. I can't explain to you who haven't seen him and who
hear his words only at second hand the mixed nature of my feelings.
It seemed to me I was being made to comprehend the Inconceiv-
able -- and I know of nothing to compare with the discomfort of
such a sensation. I was made to look at the convention that lurks in
all truth and on the essential sincerity of falsehood. He appealed to
all sides at once -- to the side turned perpetually to the light of day,
and to that side of us which, like the other hemisphere of the moon,
exists stealthily in perpetual darkness, with only a fearful ashy light
falling at times on the edge. He swayed me. I own to it, I own up.
The occasion was obscure, insignificant -- what you will: a lost
youngster, one in a million -- but then he was one of us; an incident
as completely devoid of importance as the flooding of an ant-heap,
and yet the mystery of his attitude got hold of me as though he had
been an individual in the forefront of his kind, as if the obscure
truth involved were momentous enough to affect mankind's con-
ception of itself. .. . '
  Marlow paused to put new life into his expiring cheroot, seemed
to forget all about the story, and abruptly began again.
  'My fault of course. One has no business really to get interested.
It's a weakness of mine. His was of another kind. My weakness
consists in not having a discriminating eye for the incidental -- for
the externals -- no eye for the hod of the rag-picker or the fine linen
of the next man. Next man -- that's it. I have met so many men,' he
pursued, with momentary sadness -- 'met them too with a certain --
certain -- impact, let us say; like this fellow, for instance -- and in
each case all I could see was merely the human being. A confounded
democratic quality of vision which may be better than total blind-
ness, but has been of no advantage to me, I can assure you. Men
expect one to take into account their fine linen. But I never could
get up any enthusiasm about these things. Oh! it's a failing; it's a
failing; and then comes a soft evening; a lot of men too indolent for
whist -- and a story.... '
  He paused again to wait for an encouraging remark, perhaps, but
nobody spoke; only the host, as if reluctantly performing a duty,
murmured --
  'You are so subtle, Marlow.'
  'Who? I?' said Marlow in a low voice. 'Oh no! But he was; and
try as I may for the success of this yarn, I am missing innumerable
shades -- they were so fine, so difficult to render in colourless words.
Because he complicated matters by being so simple, too -- the sim-
plest poor devil! . . . By Jove! he was amazing. There he sat telling
me that just as I saw him before my eyes he wouldn't be afraid to
face anything -- and believing in it too. I tell you it was fabulously
innocent and it was enormous, enormous! I watched him covertly,
just as though I had suspected him of an intention to take a jolly
good rise out of me. He was confident that, on the square, "on the
square, mind!" there was nothing he couldn't meet. Ever since he
had been "so high" -- "quite a little chap," he had been preparing
himself for all the difficulties that can beset one on land and water.
He confessed proudly to this kind of foresight. He had been elabor-
ating dangers and defences, expecting the worst, rehearsing his
best. He must have led a most exalted existence. Can ypu fancy
it? A succession of adventures, so much glory, such a victorious
progress! and the deep sense of his sagacity crowning every day of
his inner life. He forgot himself; his eyes shone; and with every
word my heart, searched by the light of his absurdity, was growing
heavier in my breast. I had no mind to laugh, and lest I should
smile I made for myself a stolid face. He gave signs of irritation.
  ' "It is always the unexpected that happens," I said in a propitiat-
ory tone. My obtuseness provoked him into a contemptuous "Psh-
aw!" I suppose he meant that the unexpected couldn't touch him;
nothing less than the unconceivable itself could get over his perfect
state of preparation. He had been taken unawares -- and he whis-
pered to himself a malediction upon the waters and the firmament,
upon the ship, upon the men. Everything had betrayed him! He
had been tricked into that sort of high-minded resignation which
prevented him lifting as much as his little finger, while these others
wko had a very clear perception of the actual necessity were tum-
bling against each other and sweating desperately over that boat
business. Something had gone wrong there at the last moment. It
appears that in their flurry they had contrived in some mysterious
way to get the sliding bolt of the foremost boat-chock jammed tight,
and forthwith had gone out of the remnants of their minds over the
deadly nature of that accident. It must have been a pretty sight, the
fierce industry of these beggars toiling on a motionless ship that
floated quietly in the silence of a world asleep, fighting against time
for the freeing of that boat, grovelling on all-fours, standing up in
despair, tugging, pushing, snarling at each other venomously, ready
to kill, ready to weep, and only kept from flying at each other's
throats by the fear of death that stood silent behind them like an
inflexible and cold-eyed taskmaster. Oh yes! It must have been a
pretty sight. He saw it all, he could talk about it with scorn and
bitterness; he had a minute knowledge of it by means of some sixth
sense, I conclude, because he swore to me he had remained apart
without a glance at them and at the boat -- without one single glance.
And I believe him. I should think he was too busy watching the
threatening slant of the ship, the suspended menace discovered in
the midst of the most perfect security -- fascinated by the sword
hanging by a hair over his imaginative head.
  'Nothing in the world moved before his eyes, and he could depict
to himself without hindrance the sudden swing upwards of the dark
sky-line, the sudden tilt up of the vast plain of the sea, the swift
still rise, the brutal fling, the grasp of the abyss, the struggle without
hope, the starlight closing over his head for ever like the vault of a
tomb -- the revolt of his young life -- the black end. He could! By
Jove! who couldn't? And you must remember he was a finished
artist in that peculiar way, he was a gifted poor devil with the faculty
of swift and forestalling vision. The sights it showed him had turned
him into cold stone from the soles of his feet to the nape of his neck;
but there was a hot dance of thoughts in his head, a dance of lame,
blind, mute thoughts -- a whirl of awful cripples. Didn't I tell you
he confessed himself before me as though I had the power to bind
and to loose? He burrowed deep, deep, in the hope of my absol-
ution, which would have been of no good to him. This was one of
those cases which no solemn deception can palliate, where no man
can help; where his very Maker seems to abandon a sinner to his
own devices.
  'He stood on the starboard side of the bridge, as far as he could
get from the struggle for the boat, which went on with the agitation
of madness and the stealthiness of a conspiracy. The two Malays
had meantime remained holding to the wheel. Just picture to your-
selves the actors in that, thank God! unique, episode of the sea,
four beside themselves with fierce and secret exertions, and three
looking on in complete immobility, above the awnings covering
the profound ignorance of hundreds of human beings, with their
weariness, with their dreams, with their hopes, arrested, held by
an invisible hand on the brink of annihilation. For that they were
so, makes no doubt to me: given the state of the ship, this was the
deadliest possible description of accident that could happen. These
beggars by the boat had every reason to go distracted with funk.
Frankly, had I been there, I would not have given as much as a
counterfeit farthing for the ship's chance to keep above water to the
end of each successive second. And still she floated! These sleeping
pilgrims were destined to accomplish their whole pilgrimage to the
bitterness of some other end. It was as if the Omnipotence whose
mercy they confessed had needed their humble testimony on earth
for a while longer, and had looked down to make a sign, "Thou shalt
not!" to the ocean. Their escape would trouble me as a prodigiously
inexplicable event, did I not know how tough old iron can be -- as
tough sometimes as the spirit of some men we meet now and then,
worn to a shadow and breasting the weight of life. Not the least
wonder of these twenty minutes, to my mind, is the behaviour of
the two helmsmen. They were amongst the native batch of all sorts
brought over from Aden to give evidence at the inquiry. One of
them, labouring under intense bashfulness, was very young, and
with his smooth, yellow, cheery countenance looked even younger
than he was. I remember perfectly Brierly asking him, through the
interpreter, what he thought of it at the time, and the interpreter,
after a short colloquy, turning to the court with an important air --
  ' "He says he thought nothing."
  'The other, with patient blinking eyes, a blue cotton handker-
chief, faded with much washing, bound with a smart twist over a
lot of grey wisps, his face shrunk into grim hollows, his brown
skin made darker by a mesh of wrinkles, explained that he had a
knowledge of some evil thing befalling the ship, but there had been
no order; he could not remember an order; why should he leave the
helm? To some further questions he jerked back his spare shoul-
ders, and declared it never came into his mind then that the white
men were about to leave the ship through fear of death. He did not
believe it now. There might have been secret reasons. He wagged
his old chin knowingly. Aha! secret reasons. He was a man of great
experience, and he wanted that white Tuan to know -- he turned
towards Brierly, who didn't raise his head -- that he had acquired a
knowledge of many things by serving white men on the sea for a
great number of years -- and, suddenly, with shaky excitement he
poured upon our spellbound attention a lot of queer-sounding
names, names of dead-and-gone skippers, names of forgotten coun-
try ships, names of familiar and distorted sound, as if the hand of
dumb time had been at work on them for ages. They stopped him
at last. A silence fell upon the court, -- a silence that remained
unbroken for at least a minute, and passed gently into a deep mur-
mur. This episode was the sensation of the second day's proceed-
ings -- affecting all the audience, affecting everybody except Jim,
who was sitting moodily at the end of the first bench, and never
looked up at this extraordinary and damning witness that seemed
possessed of some mysterious theory of defence.
  'So these two lascars stuck to the helm of that ship without steer-
age-way, where death would have found them if such had been their
destiny. The whites did not give them half a glance, had probably
forgotten their existence. Assuredly Jim did not remember it. He
remembered he could do nothing; he could do nothing, now he was
alone. There was nothing to do but to sink with the ship. No use
making a disturbance about it. Was there? He waited upstanding,
without a sound, stiffened in the idea of some sort of heroic discre-
tion. The first engineer ran cautiously across the bridge to tug at
his sleeve.
  ' "Come and help! For God's sake, come and help!"
  'He ran back to the boat on the points of his toes, and returned
directly to worry at his sleeve, begging and cursing at the same
time.
  ' "I believe he would have kissed my hands," said Jim savagely,
"and, next moment, he starts foaming and whispering in my face,
'If I had the time I would like to crack your skull for you.' I pushed
him away. Suddenly he caught hold of me round the neck. Damn
him! I hit him. I hit out without looking. 'Won't you save your own
life -- you infernal coward?' he sobs. Coward! He called me an
infernal coward! Ha! ha! ha! ha! He called me -- ha! ha! ha! . . ."
  'He had thrown himself back and was shaking with laughter. I
had never in my life heard anything so bitter as that noise. It fell
like a blight on all the merriment about donkeys, pyramids, bazaars,
or what not. Along the whole dim length of the gallery the voices
dropped, the pale blotches of faces turned our way with one accord,
and the silence became so profound that the clear tinkle of a tea-
spoon falling on the tesselated floor of the verandah rang out like a
tiny and silvery scream.
  ' "You mustn't laugh like this, with all these people about," I
remonstrated. "It isn't nice for them, you know."
  'He gave no sign of having heard at first, but after a while, with
a stare that, missing me altogether, seemed to probe the heart of
some awful vision, he muttered carelessly -- "Oh! they'll think I am
drunk . "
  'And after that you would have thought from his appearance he
would never make a sound again. But -- no fear! He could no more
stop telling now than he could have stopped living by the mere
exertion of his will.'

                       CHAPTER 9

  ' "I was saying to myself, 'Sink -- curse you! Sink!' " These were
the words with which he began again. He wanted it over. He was
severely left aione, and he formulated in his head this address to
the ship in a tone of imprecation, while at the same time he enjoyed
the privilege of witnessing scenes -- as far as I can judge -- of low
comedy. They were still at that bolt. The skipper was ordering,
"Get under and try to lift"; and the others naturally shirked. You
understand that to be squeezed flat under the keel of a boat wasn't
a desirable position to be caught in if the ship went down suddenly.
"Why don't you -- you the strongest?" whined the little engineer.
"Gott-for-dam! I am too thick," spluttered the skipper in despair.
It was funny enough to make angels weep. They stood idle for a
moment, and suddenly the chief engineer rushed again at Jim.
  ' "Come and help, man! Are you mad to throw your only chance
away? Come and help, man! Man! Look there -- look!"
  'And at last Jim looked astern where the other pointed with
maniacal insistence. He saw a silent black squall which had eaten
up already one-third of the sky. You know how these squalls come
up there about that time of the year. First you see a darkening of
the horizon -- no more; then a cloud rises opaque like a wall. A
straight edge of vapour lined with sickly whitish gleams flies up
from the south-west, swallowing the stars in whole constellations;
its shadow flies over the waters, and confounds sea and sky into one
abyss of obscurity. And all is still. No thunder, no wind, no sound;
not a flicker of lightning. Then in the tenebrous immensity a livid
arch appears; a swell or two like undulations of the very darkness
run past, and, suddenly, wind and rain strike together with a pecu-
liar impetuosity as if they had burst through something solid. Such
a cloud had come up while they weren't looking. They had just
noticed it, and were perfectly justified in surmising that if in abso-
lute stillness there was some chance for the ship to keep afloat a few
minutes longer, the least disturbance of the sea would make an end
of her instantly. Her first nod to the swell that precedes the burst
of such a squall would be also her last, would become a plunge,
would, so to speak, be prolonged into a long dive, down, down to
the bottom. Hence these new capers of their fright, these new antics
in which they displayed their extreme aversion to die.
  ' "It was black, black," pursued Jim with moody steadiness. "It
had sneaked upon us from behind. The infernal thing! I suppose
there had been at the back of my head some hope yet. I don't know.
But that was all over anyhow. It maddened me to see myself caught
like this. I was angry, as though I had been trapped. I was trapped!
The night was hot, too, I remember. Not a breath of air."
  'He remembered so well that, gasping in the chair, he seemed to
sweat and choke before my eyes. No doubt it maddened him; it
knocked him over afresh -- in a manner of speaking -- but it made
him also remember that important purpose which had sent him
rushing on that bridge only to slip clean out of his mind. He had
intended to cut the lifeboats clear of the ship. He whipped out hus
knife and went to work slashing as though he had seen nothing,
had heard nothing, had known of no one on board. They thought
him hopelessly wrong-headed and crazy, but dared not protest nois-
ily against this useless loss of time. When he had done he returned
to the very same spot from which he had started. The chief was
there, ready with a clutch at him to whisper close to his head,
scathingly, as though he wanted to bite his ear --
  ' "You silly fool! do you think you'll get the ghost of a show when
all that lot of brutes is in the water? Why, they will batter your head
for you from these boats."
  'He wrung his hands, ignored, at Jim's elbow. The skipper kept
up a nervous shuffle in one place and mumbled, "Hammer! ham-
mer! Mein Gott! Get a hammer."
  'The little engineer whimpered like a child, but, broken arm and
all, he turned out the least craven of the lot as it seems, and, actually,
mustered enough pluck to run an errand to the engine-room. No
trifle, it must be owned in fairness to him. Jim told me he darted
desperate looks like a cornered man, gave one low wail, and dashed
off. He was back instantly clambering, hammer in hand, and with-
out a pause flung himself at the bolt. The others gave up Jim at
once and ran off to assist. He heard the tap, tap of the hammer, the
sound of the released chock falling over. The boat was clear. Only
then he turned to look -- only then. But he kept his distance -- he
kept his distance. He wanted me to know he had kept his distance;
that there was nothing in common between him and these men --
who had the hammer. Nothing whatever. It is more than probable
he thought himself cut off from them by a space that could not be
traversed, by an obstacle that could not be overcome, by a chasm
without bottom. He was as far as he could get from them -- the
whole breadth of the ship.
  'His feet were glued to that remote spot and his eyes to their
indistinct group bowed together and swaying strangely in the com-
mon torment of fear. A hand-lamp lashed to a stanchion above a
little table rigged up on the bridge -- the Patna had no chart-room
amidships -- threw a light on their labouring shoulders, on their
arched and bobbing backs. They pushed at the bow of the boat;
they pushed out into the night; they pushed, and would no more
look back at him. They had given him up as if indeed he had been
too far, too hopelessly separated from themselves, to be worth an
appealing word, a glance, or a sign. They had no leisure to look
back upon his passive heroism, to feel the sting of his abstention.
The boat was heavy; they pushed at the bow with no breath to spare
for an encouraging word: but the turmoil of terror that had scattered
their self-command like chaff before the wind, converted their
desperate exertions into a bit of fooling, upon my word, fit for
knockabout clowns in a farce. They pushed with their hands, with
their heads, they pushed for dear life with all the weight of their
bodies, they pushed with all the might of their souls -- only no
sooner had they succeeded in canting the stem clear of the davit
than they would leave off like one man and start a wild scramble
into her. As a natural consequence the boat would swing in
abruptly, driving them back, helpless and jostling against each
other. They would stand nonplussed for a while, exchanging in
fierce whispers all the infamous names they could call to mind, and
go at it again. Three times this occurred. He described it to me with
morose thoughtfulness. He hadn't lost a single movement of that
comic business. "I loathed them. I hated them. I had to look at
all that," he said without emphasis, turning upon me a sombrely
watchful glance. "Was ever there any one so shamefully tried?"
  'He took his head in his hands for a moment, like a man driven
to distraction by some unspeakable outrage. These were things he
could not explain to the court -- and not even to me; but I would
have been little fitted for the reception of his confidences had I not
been able at times to understand the pauses between the words. In
this assault upon his fortitude there was the jeering intention of a
spiteful and vile vengeance; there was an element of burlesque in
his ordeal -- a degradation of funny grimaces in the approach of
death or dishonour.
  'He related facts which I have not forgotten, but at this distance
of time I couldn't recall his very words: I only remember that he
managed wonderfully to convey the brooding rancour of his mind
into the bare recital of events. Twice, he told me, he shut his eyes
in the certitude that the end was upon him already, and twice he
had to open them again. Each time he noted the darkening of the
great stillness. The shadow of the silent cloud had fallen upon the
ship from the zenith, and seemed to have extinguished every sound
of her teeming life. He could no longer hear the voices under the
awnings. He told me that each time he closed his eyes a flash of
thought showed him that crowd of bodies, laid out for death, as
plain as daylight. When he opened them, it was to see the dim
struggle of four men fighting like mad with a stubborn boat. "They
would fall back before it time after time, stand swearing at each
other, and suddenly make another rush in a bunch.... Enough to
make you die laughing," he commented with downcast eyes; then
raising them for a moment to my face with a dismal smile, "I ought
to have a merry life of it, by God! for I shall see that funny sight a
good many times yet before I die." His eyes fell again. "See and
hear.... See and hear," he repeated twice, at long intervals, filled
by vacant staring.
  'He roused himself.
  ' "I made up my mind to keep my eyes shut," he said, "and I
couldn't. I couldn't, and I don't care who knows it. Let them go
through that kind of thing before they talk. Just let them -- and do
better -- that's all. The second time my eyelids flew open and my
mouth too. I had felt the ship move. She just dipped her bows --
and lifted them gently -- and slow! everlastingly slow; and ever so
little. She hadn't done that much for days. The cloud had raced
ahead, and this first swell seemed to travel upon a sea of lead. There
was no life in that stir. Itmanaged, though, to knock over something
in my head. What would you have done? You are sure of yourself --
aren't you? What would you do if you felt now -- this minute -- the
house here move, just move a little under your chair. Leap! By
heavens! you would take one spring from where you sit and land in
that clump of bushes yonder."
  'He flung his arm out at the night beyond the stone balustrade.
I held my peace. He looked at me very steadily, very severe. There
could be no mistake: I was being bullied now, and it behoved me
to make no sign lest by a gesture or a word I should be drawn into
a fatal admission about myself which would have had some bearing
on the case. I was not disposed to take any risk of that sort. Don't
forget I had him before me, and really he was too much like one of
us not to be dangerous. But if you want to know I don't mind telling
you that I did, with a rapid glance, estimate the distance to the
mass of denser blackness in the middle of the grass-plot before the
verandah. He exaggerated. I would have landed short by several
feet -- and that's the only thing of which I am fairly certain.
  'The last moment had come, as he thought, and he did not move.
His feet remained glued to the planks if his thoughts were knocking
about loose in his head. It was at this moment too that he saw one
of the men around the boat step backwards suddenly, clutch at the
air with raised arms, totter and collapse. He didn't exactly fall, he
only slid gently into a sitting posture, all hunched up, and with his
shoulders propped against the side of the engine-room skylight.
"That was the donkey-man. A haggard, white-faced chap with a
ragged moustache. Acted third engineer," he explained.
  ' "Dead," I said. We had heard something of that in court.
  ' "So they say," he pronounced with sombre indifference. "Of
course I never knew. Weak heart. The man had been complaining
of being out of sorts for some time before. Excitement. Over-exer-
tion. Devil only knows. Ha! ha! ha! It was easy to see he did not
want to die either. Droll, isn't it? May I be shot if he hadn't been
fooled into killing himself! Fooled -- neither more nor less. Fooled
into it, by heavens! just as I . . . Ah! If he had only kept still; if he
had only told them to go to the devil when they came to rush him
out of his bunk because the ship was sinking! If he had only stood
by with his hands in his pockets and called them names!"
  'He got up, shook his fist, glared at me, and sat down.
  ' "A chance missed, eh?" I murmured.
  ' "Why don't you laugh?" he said. "A joke hatched in hell. Weak
heart! . . . I wish sometimes mine had been."
  'This irritated me. "Do you?" I exclaimed with deep-rooted
irony. "Yes! Can'tyou understand?" he cried. "I don't know what
more you could wish for," I said angrily. He gave me an utterly
uncomprehending glance. This shaft had also gone wide of the
mark, and he was not the man to bother about stray arrows. Upon
my word, he was too unsuspecting; he was not fair game. I was glad
that my missile had been thrown away, -- that he had not even heard
the twang of the bow.
  'Of course he could not know at the time the man was dead. The
next minute -- his last on board -- was crowded with a tumult of
events and sensations which beat about him like the sea upon a
rock. I use the simile advisedly, because from his relation I am
forced to believe he had preserved through it all a strange illusion
of passiveness, as though he had not acted but had suffered bimself
to be handled by the infernal powers who had selected him for the
victim of their practical joke. The first thing that came to him was
the grinding surge of the heavy davits swinging out at last -- a jar
which seemed to enter his body from the deck through the soles of
his feet, and travel up his spine to the crown of his head. Then, the
squall being very near now, another and a heavier swell lifted the
passive hull in a threatening heave that checked his breath, while
his brain and his heart together were pierced as with daggers by
panic-stricken screams. "Let go! For God's sake, let go! Let go!
She's going." Following upon that the boat-falls ripped through
the blocks, and a lot of men began to talk in startled tones under
the awnings. "When these beggars did break out, their yelps were
enough to wake the dead," he said. Next, after the splashing shock
of the boat literally dropped in the water, came the hollow noises
of stamping and tumbling in her, mingled with confused shouts:
"Unhook! Unhook! Shove! Unhook! Shove for your life! Here's
the squall down on us.... " He heard, high above his head, the
faint muttering of the wind; he heard below his feet a cry of pain.
A lost voice alongside started cursing a swivel hook. The ship began
to buzz fore and aft like a disturbed hive, and, as quietly as he was
telling me of all this -- because just then he was very quiet in attitude,
in face, in voice -- he went on to say without the slightest warning
as it were, "I stumbled over his legs."
  'This was the first I heard of his having moved at all. I could not
restrain a grunt of surprise. Something had started him off at last,
but of the exact moment, of the cause that tore him out of his
immobility, he knew no more than the uprooted tree knows of the
wind that laid it low. All this had come to him: the sounds, the
sights, the legs of the dead man -- by Jove! The infernal joke was
being crammed devilishly down his throat, but -- look you -- he was
not going to admit of any sort of swallowing motion in his gullet.
It's extraordinary how he could cast upon you the spirit of his
illusion. I listened as if to a tale of black magic at work upon a
corpse.
  ' "He went over sideways, very gently, and this is the last thing
I remember seeing on board," he continued. "I did not care what
he did. It looked as though he were picking himself up: I thought
he was picking himself up, of course: I expected him to bolt past
me over the rail and drop into the boat after the others. I could hear
them knocking about down there, and a voice as if crying up a shaft
called out 'George!' Then three voices together raised a yell. They
came to me separately: one bleated, another screamed, one howled.
Ough!"
  'He shivered a little, and I beheld him rise slowly as if a steady
hand from above had been pulling him out of the chair by his hair.
Up, slowly -- to his full height, and when his knees had locked stiff
the hand let him go, and he swayed a little on his feet. There was a
suggestion of awful stillness in his face, in his movements, in his
very voice when he said "They shouted" -- and involuntarily I
pricked up my ears for the ghost of that shout that would be heard
directly through the false effect of silence. "There were eight hun-
dred people in that ship," he said, impaling me to the back of my
seat with an awful blank stare. "Eight hundred living people, and
they were yelling after the one dead man to come down and be
saved. 'Jump, George! Jump! Oh, jump!' I stood by with my hand
on the davit. I was very quiet. It had come over pitch dark. You
could see neither sky nor sea. I heard the boat alongside go bump,
bump, and not another sound down there for a while, but the ship
under me was full of talking noises. Suddenly the skipper howled
'Mein Gott! The squall! The squall! Shove off!' With the first hiss
of rain, and the first gust of wind, they screamed, 'Jump, George!
We'll catch you! Jump!' The ship began a slow plunge; the rain
swept over her like a broken sea; my cap flew off my head; my
breath was driven back into my throat. I heard as if I had been on
the top of a tower another wild screech, 'Geo-o-o-orge! Oh, jump!'
She was going down, down, head first under me.... "
  'He raised his hand deliberately to his face, and made picking
motions with his fingers as though he had been bothered with cob-
webs, and afterwards he looked into the open palm for quite half
a second before he blurted out --
  ' "I had jumped . . . " He checked himself, averted his
gaze.... "It seems," he added.
  'His clear blue eyes turned to me with a piteous stare, and looking
at him standing before me, dumfounded and hurt, I was oppressed
by a sad sense of resigned wisdom, mingled with the amused and
profound pity of an old man helpless before a childish disaster.
  ' "Looks like it," I muttered.
  ' "I knew nothing about it till I looked up," he explained hastily.
And that's possible too. You had to listen to him as you would to a
small boy in trouble. He didn't know. It had happened somehow.
It would never happen again. He had landed partly on somebody
and fallen across a thwart. He felt as though all his ribs on his left
side must be broken; then he rolled over, and saw vaguely the ship
he had deserted uprising above him, with the red side-light glowing
large in the rain like a fire on the brow of a hill seen through a mist.
"She seemed higher than a wall; she loomed like a cliff over the
boat . . . I wished I could die," he cried. "There was no going
back. It was as if I had jumped into a well -- into an everlasting deep
hole.... " '

                       CHAPTER 10

  'He locked his fingers together and tore them apart. Nothing
could be more true: he had indeed jumped into an everlasting deep
hole. He had tumbled from a height he could never scale again. By
that time the boat had gone driving forward past the bows. It was
too dark just then for them to see each other, and, moreover, they
were blinded and half drowned with rain. He told me it was like
being swept by a flood through a cavern. They turned their backs
to the squall; the skipper, it seems, got an oar over the stern to keep
the boat before it, and for two or three minutes the end of the world
had come through a deluge in a pitchy blackness. The sea hissed
"like twenty thousand kettles." That's his simile, not mine. I fancy
there was not much wind after the first gust; and he himself had
admitted at the inquiry that the sea never got up that night to any
extent. He crouched down in the bows and stole a furtive glance
back. He saw just one yellow gleam of the mast-head light high up
and blurred like a last star ready to dissolve. "It terrified me to see
it still there," he said. That's what he said. What terrified him was
the thought that the drowning was not over yet. No doubt he wanted
to be done with that abomination as quickly as possible. Nobody
in the boat made a sound. In the dark she seemed to fly, but of
course she could not have had much way. Then the shower swept
ahead, and the great, distracting, hissing noise followed the rain
into distance and died out. There was nothing to be heard then
but the slight wash about the boat's sides. Somebody's teeth were
chattering violently. A hand touched his back. A faint voice said,
"You there?" Another cried out shakily, "She's gone!" and they
all stood up together to look astern. They saw no lights. All was
black. A thin cold drizzle was driving into their faces. The boat
lurched slightly. The teeth chattered faster, stopped, and began
again twice before the man could master his shiver sufficiently to
say, "Ju-ju-st in ti-ti-me.... Brrrr." He recognised the voice of
the chief engineer saying surlily, "I saw her go down. I happened
to turn my head." The wind had dropped almost completely.
  'They watched in the dark with their heads half turned to wind-
ward as if expecting to hear cries. At first he was thankful the night
had covered up the scene before his eyes, and then to know of it
and yet to have seen and heard nothing appeared somehow the
culminating point of an awful misfortune. "Strange, isn't it?" he
murmured, interrupting himself in his disjointed narrative.
  'It did not seem so strange to me. He must have had an
unconscious conviction that the reality could not be half as bad, not
half as anguishing, appalling, and vengeful as the created terror of
his imagination. I believe that, in this first moment, his heart was
wrung with all the suffering, that his soul knew the accumulated
savour of all the fear, all the horror, all the despair of eight hundred
human beings pounced upon in the night by a sudden and violent
death, else why should he have said, "It seemed to me that I must
jump out of that accursed boat and swim back to see -- half a mile --
more -- any distance -- to the very spot . . . "? Why this impulse?
Do you see the significance? Why back to the very spot? Why not
drown alongside -- if he meant drowning? Why back to the very
spot, to see -- as if his imagination had to be soothed by the assurance
that all was over before death could bring relief? I defy any one of
you to offer another explanation. It was one of those bizarre and
exciting glimpses through the fog. It was an extraordinary dis-
closure. He let it out as the most natural thing one could say. He
fought down that impulse and then he became conscious of the
silence. He mentioned this to me. A silence of the sea, of the sky,
merged into one indefinite immensity still as death around these
saved, palpitating lives. "You might have heard a pin drop in the
boat," he said with a queer contraction of his lips, like a man trying
to master his sensibilities while relating some extremely moving
fact. A silence! God alone, who had willed him as he was, knows
what he made of it in his heart. "I didn't think any spot on earth
could be so still," he said. "You couldn't distinguish the sea from
the sky; there was nothing to see and nothing to hear. Not a glim-
mer, not a shape, not a sound. You could have believed that every
bit of dry land had gone to the bottom; that every man on earth but
I and these beggars in the boat had got drowned." He leaned over
the table with his knuckles propped amongst coffee-cups, liqueur-
glasses, cigar-ends. "I seemed to believe it. Everything was gone
and -- all was over . . . " he fetched a deep sigh . . . "with me." '
  Marlow sat up abruptly and flung away his cheroot with force. It
made a darting red trail like a toy rocket fired through the drapery
of creepers. Nobody stirred.
  'Hey, what do you think of it?' he cried with sudden animation.
'Wasn't he true to himself, wasn't he? His saved life was over for
want of ground under his feet, for want of sights for his eyes, for
want of voices in his ears. Annihilation -- hey! And all the time it
was only a clouded sky, a sea that did not break, the air that did
not stir. Only a night; only a silence.
  'It lasted for a while, and then they were suddenly and unani-
mously moved to make a noise over their escape. "I knew from the
first she would go." "Not a minute too soon." "A narrow squeak,
b'gosh!" He said nothing, but the breeze that had dropped came
back, a gentle draught freshened steadily, and the sea joined its
murmuring voice to this talkative reaction succeeding the dumb
moments of awe. She was gone! She was gone! Not a doubt of it.
Nobody could have helped. They repeated the same words over
and over again as though they couldn't stop themselves. Never
doubted she would go. The lights were gone. No mistake. The
lights were gone. Couldn't expect anything else. She had to go....
He noticed that they talked as though they had left behind them
nothing but an empty ship. They concluded she would not have
been long when she once started. It seemed to cause them some sort
of satisfaction. They assured each other that she couldn't have been
long about it -- "Just shot down like a flat-iron." The chief engineer
declared that the mast-head light at the moment of sinking seemed
to drop "like a lighted match you throw down." At this the second
laughed hysterically. "I am g-g-glad, I am gla-a-a-d." His teeth
went on "like an electric rattle," said Jim, "and all at once he began
to cry. He wept and blubbered like a child, catching his breath and
sobbing 'Oh dear! oh dear! oh dear!' He would be quiet for a while
and start suddenly, 'Oh, my poor arm! oh, my poor a-a-a-arm!' I
felt I could knock him down. Some of them sat in the stern-sheets.
I could just make out their shapes. Voices came to me, mumble,
mumble, grunt, grunt. All this seemed very hard to bear. I was cold
too. And I could do nothing. I thought that if I moved I would have
to go over the side and . . . "
  'His hand groped stealthily, came in contact with a liqueur-glass,
and was withdrawn suddenly as if it had touched a red-hot coal. I
pushed the bottle slightly. "Won't you have some more?" I asked.
He looked at me angrily. "Don't you think I can tell you what there
is to tell without screwing myself up?" he asked. The squad of
globe-trotters had gone to bed. We were alone but for a vague white
form erect in the shadow, that, being looked at, cringed forward,
hesitated, backed away silently. It was getting late, but I did not
hurry my guest.
  'In the midst of his forlorn state he heard his companions begin
to abuse some one. "What kept you from jumping, you lunatic?"
said a scolding voice. The chief engineer left the stern-sheets, and
could be heard clambering forward as if with hostile intentions
against "the greatest idiot that ever was." The skipper shouted with
rasping effort offensive epithets from where he sat at the oar. He
lifted his head at that uproar, and heard the name "George," while
a hand in the dark struck him on the breast. "What have you got
to say for yourself, you fool?" queried somebody, with a sort of
virtuous fury. "They were after me," he said. "They were abusing
me -- abusing me . . . by the name of George. "
  'He paused to stare, tried to smile, turned his eyes away and went
on. "That little second puts his head right under my nose, 'Why,
it's that blasted mate!' 'What!' howls the skipper from the other
end of the boat. 'No!' shrieks the chief. And he too stooped to look
at my face."
  'The wind had left the boat suddenly. The rain began to fall
again, and the soft, uninterrupted, a little mysterious sound with
which the sea receives a shower arose on all sides in the night.
"They were too taken aback to say anything more at first," he
narrated steadily, "and what could I have to say to them?" He
faltered for a moment, and made an effort to go on. "They called
me horrible names." His voice, sinking to a whisper, now and
then would leap up suddenly, hardened by the passion of scorn, as
though he had been talking of secret abominations. "Never mind
what they called me," he said grimly. "I could hear hate in their
voices. A good thing too. They could not forgive me for being in
that boat. They hated it. It made them mad.... " He laughed
short.... "But it kept me from -- Look! I was sitting with my arms
crossed, on the gunwale! . . . " He perched himself smartly on the
edge of the table and crossed his arms.... "Like this -- see? One
little tilt backwards and I would have been gone -- after the others.
One little tilt -- the least bit -- the least bit." He frowned, and tapping
his forehead with the tip of his middle finger, "It was there all the
time," he said impressively. "All the time -- that notion. And the
rain -- cold, thick, cold as melted snow -- colder -- on my thin cotton
clothes -- I'll never be so cold again in my life, I know. And the sky
was black too -- all black. Not a star, not a light anywhere. Nothing
outside that confounded boat and those two yapping before me like
a couple of mean mongrels at a tree'd thief. Yap! yap! 'What you
doing here? You're a fine sort! Too much of a bloomin' gentleman
to put your hand to it. Come out of your trance, did you? To sneak
in? Did you?' Yap! yap! 'You ain't fit to live!' Yap! yap! Two of
them together trying to out-bark each other. The other would bay
from the stern through the rain -- couldn't see him -- couldn't make
it out -- some of his filthy jargon. Yap! yap! Bow-ow-ow-ow-ow!
Yap! yap! It was sweet to hear them; it kept me alive, I tell you. It
saved my life. At it they went, as if trying to drive me overboard
with the noise! . . . 'I wonder you had pluck enough to jump. You
ain't wanted here. If I had known who it was, I would have tipped
you over -- you skunk! What have you done with the other? Where
did you get the pluck to jump -- you coward? What's to prevent us
three from firing you overboard?' . . . They were out of breath; the
shower passed away upon the sea. Then nothing. There was nothing
round the boat, not even a sound. Wanted to see me overboard, did
they? Upon my soul! I think they would have had their wish if they
had only kept quiet. Fire me overboard! Would they? 'Try,' I said.
'I would for twopence.' 'Too good for you,' they screeched together.
It was so dark that it was only when one or the other of them moved
that I was quite sure of seeing him. By heavens! I only wish they
had tried."
  'I couldn't help exclaiming, "What an extraordinary affair!"
  ' "Not bad -- eh?" he said, as if in some sort astounded. "They
pretended to think I had done away with that donkey-man for some
reason or other. Why should I? And how the devil was I to know?
Didn't I get somehow into that boat? into that boat -- I . . . " The
muscles round his lips contracted into an unconscious grimace that
tore through the mask of his usual expression -- something violent,
short-lived and illuminating like a twist of lightning that admits the
eye for an instant into the secret convolutions of a cloud. "I did. I
was plainly there with them -- wasn't I? Isn't it awful a man should
be driven to do a thing like that -- and be responsible? What did I
know about their George they were howling after? I remembered I
had seen him curled up on the deck. 'Murdering coward!' the chief
kept on calling me. He didn't seem able to remember any other two
words. I didn't care, only his noise began to worry me. 'Shut up,'
I said. At that he collected himself for a confounded screech. 'You
killed him! You killed bim!' 'No,' I shouted, 'but I will kill you
directly.' I jumped up, and he fell backwards over a thwart with an
awful loud thump. I don't know why. Too dark. Tried to step back
I suppose. I stood still facing aft, and the wretched little second
began to whine, 'You ain't going to hit a chap with a broken arm --
and you call yourself a gentleman, too.' I heard a heavy tramp --
one -- two -- and wheezy grunting. The other beast was coming at
me, clattering his oar over the stern. I saw him moving, big, big --
as you see a man in a mist, in a dream. 'Come on,' I cried. I would
have tumbled him over like a bale of shakings. He stopped, mut-
tered to himself, and went back. Perhaps he had heard the wind. I
didn't. It was the last heavy gust we had. He went back to his oar.
I was sorry. I would have tried to -- to . . . "
  'He opened and closed his curved fingers, and his hands had an
eager and cruel flutter. "Steady, steady," I murmured.
  ' "Eh? What? I am not excited," he remonstrated, awfully hurt,
and with a convulsive jerk of his elbow knocked over the cognac
bottle. I started forward, scraping my chair. He bounced off the
table as if a mine had been exploded behind his back, and half
turned before he alighted, crouching on his feet to show me a star-
tled pair of eyes and a face white about the nostrils. A look of intense
annoyance succeeded. "Awfully sorry. How clumsy of me!" he
mumbled, very vexed, while the pungent odour of spilt alcohol
enveloped us suddenly with an atmosphere of a low drinking-bout
in the cool, pure darkness of the night. The lights had been put out
in the dining-hall; our candle glimmered solitary in the long gallery,
and the columns had turned black from pediment to capital. On
the vivid stars the high corner of the Harbour Office stood out
distinct across the Esplanade, as though the sombre pile had glided
nearer to see and hear.
  'He assumed an air of indifference.
  ' "I dare say I am less calm now than I was then. I was ready for
anything. These were trifles.... "
  ' "You had a lively time of it in that boat," I remarked
  ' "I was ready," he repeated. "After the ship's lights had gone,
anything might have happened in that boat -- anything in the world --
and the world no wiser. I felt this, and I was pleased. It was just
dark enough too. We were like men walled up quick in a roomy
grave. No concern with anything on earth. Nobody to pass an
opinion. Nothing mattered." For the third time during this conver-
sation he laughed harshly, but there was no one about to suspect
him of being only drunk. "No fear, no law, no sounds, no eyes --
not even our own, till -- till sunrise at least."
  'I was struck by the suggestive truth of his words. There is some-
thing peculiar in a small boat upon the wide sea. Over the lives
borne from under the shadow of death there seems to fall the shadow
of madness. When your ship fails you, your whole world seems to
fail you; the world that made you, restrained you, took care of you.
It is as if the souls of men floating on an abyss and in touch with
immensity had been set free for any excess of heroism, absurdity,
or abomination. Of course, as with belief, thought, love, hate, con-
viction, or even the visual aspect of material things, there are as
many shipwrecks as there are men, and in this one there was some-
thing abject which made the isolation more complete -- there was a
villainy of circumstances that cut these men off more completely
from the rest of mankind, whose ideal of conduct had never under-
gone the trial of a fiendish and appalling joke. They were exasper-
ated with him for being a half-hearted shirker: he focussed on them
his hatred of the whole thing; he would have liked to take a signal
revenge for the abhorrent opportunity they had put in his way.
Trust a boat on the high seas to bring out the Irrational that lurks
at the bottom of every thought, sentiment, sensation, emotion. It
was part of the burlesque meanness pervading that particular disas-
ter at sea that they did not come to blows. It was all threats, all a
terribly effective feint, a sham from beginning to end, planned by
the tremendous disdain of the Dark Powers whose real terrors,
always on the verge of triumph, are perpetually foiled by the stead-
fastness of men. I asked, after waiting for a while, 'Well, what
happened?" A futile question. I knew too much already to hope for
the grace of a single uplifting touch, for the favour of hinted mad-
ness, of shadowed horror. "Nothing," he said. "I meant business,
but they meant noise only. Nothing happened."
  'And the rising sun found him just as he had jumped up first in
the bows of the boat. What a persistence of readiness! He had been
holding the tiller in his hand, too, all the night. They had dropped
the rudder overboard while attempting to ship it, and I suppose the
tiller got kicked forward somehow while they were rushing up and
down that boat trying to do all sorts of things at once so as to get
clear of the side. It was a long heavy piece of hard wood, and
apparently he had been clutching it for six hours or so. If you don't
call that being ready! Can you imagine him, silent and on his feet
half the night, his face to the gusts of rain, staring at sombre forms
watchful of vague movements, straining his ears to catch rare low
murmurs in the stern-sheets! Firmness of courage or effort of fear?
What do you think? And the endurance is undeniable too. Six hours
more or less on the defensive; six hours of alert immobility while
the boat drove slowly or floated arrested, according to the caprice
of the wind; while the sea, calmed, slept at last; while the clouds
passed above his head; while the sky from an immensity lustreless
and black, diminished to a sombre and lustrous vault, scintillated
with a greater brilliance, faded to the east, paled at the zenith; while
the dark shapes blotting the low stars astern got outlines, relief
became shoulders, heads, faces, features, -- confronted him with
dreary stares, had dishevelled hair, torn clothes, blinked red eyelids
at the white dawn. "They looked as though they had been knocking
about drunk in gutters for a week," he described graphically; and
then he muttered something about the sunrise being of a kind that
foretells a calm day. You know that sailor habit of referring to the
weather in every connection. And on my side his few mumbled
words were enough to make me see the lower limb of the sun clear-
ing the line of the horizon, the tremble of a vast ripple running over
all the visible expanse of the sea, as if the waters had shuddered,
giving birth to the globe of light, while the last puff of the breeze
would stir the air in a sigh of relief.
  ' "They sat in the stern shoulder to shoulder, with the skipper
in the middle, like three dirty owls, and stared at me," I heard him
say with an intention of hate that distilled a corrosive virtue into
the commonplace words like a drop of powerful poison falling into
a glass of water; but my thoughts dwelt upon that sunrise. I could
imagine under the pellucid emptiness of the sky these four men
imprisoned in the solitude of the sea, the lonely sun, regardless of
the speck of life, ascending the clear curve of the heaven as if to
gaze ardently from a greater height at his own splendour reflected
in the still ocean. "They called out to me from aft," said Jim, "as
though we had been chums together. I heard them. They were
begging me to be sensible and drop that 'blooming piece of wood.'
Why would I carry on so? They hadn't done me any harm -- had
they? There had been no harm.... No harml"
  'His face crimsoned as though he could not get rid of the air in
his lungs.
  ' "No harm!" he burst out. "I leave it to you. You can under-
stand. Can't you? You see it -- don't you? No harm! Good God!
What more could they have done? Oh yes, I know very well -- I
jumped. Certainly. I jumped! I told you I jumped; but I tell you
they were too much for any man. It was their doing as plainly as if
they had reached up with a boat-hook and pulled me over. Can't
you see it? You must see it. Come. Speak -- straight out."
  His uneasy eyes fastened upon mine, questioned, begged, chal-
lenged, entreated. For the life of me I couldn't help murmuring,
"You've been tried." "More than is fair," he caught up swiftly. "I
wasn't given half a chance -- with a gang like that. And now they
were friendly -- oh, so damnably friendly! Chums, shipmates. All
in the same boat. Make the best of it. They hadn't meant anything.
They didn t care a hang for George. George had gone back to his
berth for something at the last moment and got caught. The man
was a manifest fool. Very sad, of course.... Their eyes looked at
me; their lips moved; they wagged their heads at the other end of
the boat -- three of them; they beckoned -- to me. Why not? Hadn't
I jumped? I said nothing. There are no words for the sort of things
I wanted to say. If I had opened my lips just then I would have
simply howled like an animal. I was asking myself when I would
wake up. They urged me aloud to come aft and hear quietly what
the skipper had to say. We were sure to be picked up before the
evening -- right in the track of all the Canal traffic; there was smoke
to the north-west now.
  ' "It gave me an awful shock to see this faint, faint blur, this low
trail of brown mist through which you could see the boundary of
sea and sky. I called out to them that I could hear very well where
I was. The skipper started swearing, as hoarse as a crow. He wasn't
going to talk at the top of his voice for my accommodation. 'Are you
afraid they will hear you on shore?' I asked. He glared as if he would
have liked to claw me to pieces. The chief engineer advised him to
humour me. He said I wasn't right in my head yet. The other rose
astern, like a thick pillar of flesh -- and talked -- talked.... "
  'Jim remained thoughtful. "Well?" I said. "What did I care what
story they agreed to make up?" he cried recklessly. "They could
tell what they jolly well liked. It was their business. I knew the
story. Nothing they could make people believe could alter it for me.
I let him talk, argue -- talk, argue. He went on and on and on.
Suddenly I felt my legs give way under me. I was sick, tired -- tired
to death. I let fall the tiller, turned my back on them, and sat down
on the foremost thwart. I had enough. They called to me to know
if I understood -- wasn't it true, every word of it? It was true, by
God! after their fashion. I did not turn my head. I heard them
palavering together. 'The silly ass won't say anything.' 'Oh, he
understands well enough.' 'Let him be; he will be all right.' 'What
can he do?' What could I do? Weren't we all in the same boat? I
tried to be deaf. The smoke had disappeared to the northward. It
was a dead calm. They had a drink from the water-breaker, and I
drank too. Afterwards they made a great business of spreading the
boat-sail over the gunwales. Would I keep a look-out? They crept
under, out of my sight, thank God! I felt weary, weary, done up,
as if I hadn't had one hour's sleep since the day I was born. I
couldn't see the water for the glitter of the sunshine. From time to
time one of them would creep out, stand up to take a look all round,
and get under again. I could hear spells of snoring below the sail.
Some of them could sleep. One of them at least. I couldn't! All was
light, light, and the boat seemed to be falling through it. Now
and then I would feel quite surprised to find myself sitting on a
thwart.... "
  'He began to walk with measured steps to and fro before my
chair, one hand in his trousers-pocket, his head bent thoughtfully,
and his right arm at long intervals raised for a gesture that seemed
to put out of his way an invisible intruder.
  ' "I suppose you think I was going mad," he began in a changed
tone. "And well you may, if you remember I had lost my cap. The
sun crept all the way from east to west over my bare head, but that
day I could not come to any harm, I suppose. The sun could not
make me mad.... " His right arm put aside the idea of mad-
ness.... "Neither could it kill me.... " Again his arm repulsed
a shadow.... "That rested with me."
  ' "Did it?" I said, inexpressibly amazed at this new turn, and I
looked at him with the same sort of feeling I might be fairly con-
ceived to experience had he, after spinning round on his heel, pre-
sented an altogether new face.
  ' "I didn't get brain fever, I did not drop dead either," he went
on. "I didn't bother myself at all about the sun over my head. I was
thinking as coolly as any man that ever sat thinking in the shade.
That greasy beast of a skipper poked his big cropped head from
under the canvas and screwed his fishy eyes up at me. 'Don-
nerwetter! you will die,' he growled, and drew in like a turtle. I had
seen him. I had heard him. He didn't interrupt me. I was thinking
just then that I wouldn't."
  'He tried to sound my thought with an attentive glance dropped
on me in passing. "Do you mean to say you had been deliberating
with yourself whether you would die?" I asked in as impenetrable
a tone as I could command. He nodded without stopping. "Yes, it
had come to that as I sat there alone," he said. He passed on a few
steps to the imaginary end of his beat, and when he flung round to
come back both his hands were thrust deep into his pockets. He
stopped short in front of my chair and looked down. "Don't you
believe it?" he inquired with tense curiosity. I was moved to make
a solemn declaration of my readiness to believe implicitly anything
he thought fit to tell me.'

                      CHAPTER 11

  'He heard me out with his head on one side, and I had another
glimpse through a rent in the mist in which he moved and had his
being. The dim candle spluttered within the ball of glass, and that
was all I had to see him by; at his back was the dark night with the
clear stars, whose distant glitter disposed in retreating planes lured
the eye into the depths of a greater darkness; and yet a mysterious
light seemed to show me his boyish head, as if in that moment the
youth within him had, for a second, glowed and expired. "You are
an awful good sort to listen like this," he said. "It does me good.
You don't know what it is to me. You don't" . . . words seemed to
fail him. It was a distinct glimpse. He was a youngster of the sort
you like to see about you; of the sort you like to imagine yourself
to have been; of the sort whose appearance claims the fellowship of
these illusions you had thought gone out, extinct, cold, and which,
as if rekindled at the approach of another flame, give a flutter deep,
deep down somewhere, give a flutter of light . . . of heat! . . . Yes;
I had a glimpse of him then . . . and it was not the last of that
kind.... "You don't know what it is for a fellow in my position
to be believed -- make a clean breast of it to an elder man. It is so
difficult -- so awfully unfair -- so hard to understand."
  'The mists were closing again. I don't know how old I appeared
to him -- and how much wise. Not half as old as I felt just then; not
half as uselessly wise as I knew myself to be. Surely in no other craft
as in that of the sea do the hearts of those already launched to sink
or swim go out so much to the youth on the brink, looking with
shining eyes upon that glitter of the vast surface which is only a
reflection of his own glances full of fire. There is such magnificent
vagueness in the expectations that had driven each of us to sea, such
a glorious indefiniteness, such a beautiful greed of adventures that
are their own and only reward. What we get -- well, we won't talk
of that; but can one of us restrain a smile? In no other kind of life
is the illusion more wide of reality -- in no other is the beginning all
illusion -- the disenchantment more swift -- the subjugation more
complete. Hadn't we all commenced with the same desire, ended
with the same knowledge, carried the memory of the same cherished
glamour through the sordid days of imprecation? What wonder that
when some heavy prod gets home the bond is found to be close;
that besides the fellowship of the craft there is felt the strength of
a wider feeling -- the feeling that binds a man to a child. He was
there before me, believing that age and wisdom can find a remedy
against the pain of truth, giving me a glimpse of himself as a young
fellow in a scrape that is the very devil of a scrape, the sort of scrape
greybeards wag at solemnly while they hide a smile. And he had
been deliberating upon death -- confound him! He had found that
to meditate about because he thought he had saved his life, while
all its glamour had gone with the ship in the night. What more
natural! It was tragic enough and funny enough in all conscience to
call aloud for compassion, and in what was I better than the rest of
us to refuse him my pity? And even as I looked at him the mists
rolled into the rent, and his voice spoke --
  ' "I was so lost, you know. It was the sort of thing one does not
expect to happen to one. It was not like a fight, for instance."
  ' "It was not," I admitted. He appeared changed, as if he had
suddenly matured.
  ' "One couldn't be sure," he muttered.
  ' "Ah! You were not sure," I said, and was placated by the sound
of a faint sigh that passed between us like the flight of a bird in the
night.
  ' "Well, I wasn't," he said courageously. "It was something like
that wretched story they made up. It was not a lie -- but it wasn't
truth all the same. It was something.... One knows a downright
lie. There was not the thickness of a sheet of paper between the
right and the wrong of this affair."
  ' "How much more did you want?" I asked; but I think I spoke
so low that he did not catch what I said. He had advanced his
argument as though life had been a network of paths separated by
chasms. His voice sounded reasonable.
  ' "Suppose I had not -- I mean to say, suppose I had stuck to the
ship? Well. How much longer? Say a minute -- half a minute. Come.
In thirty seconds, as it seemed certain then, I would have been
overboard; and do you think I would not have laid hold of the first
thing that came in my way -- oar, life-buoy, grating -- anything?
Wouldn't you?"
  ' "And be saved," I interjected.
  ' "I would have meant to be," he retorted. "And that's more
than I meant when I" . . . he shivered as if about to swallow some
nauseous drug . . . "jumped," he pronounced with a convulsive
effort, whose stress, as if propagated by the waves of the air, made
my body stir a little in the chair. He fixed me with lowering eyes.
"Don't you believe me?" he cried. "I swear! . . . Confound it! You
got me here to talk, and . . . You must! . . . You said you would
believe." "Of course I do," I protested, in a matter-of-fact tone
which produced a calming effect. "Forgive me," he said. "Of
course I wouldn't have talked to you about all this if you had not
been a gentleman. I ought to have known . . . I am -- I am -- a
gentleman too . . ." "Yes, yes," I said hastily. He was looking
me squarely in the face, and withdrew his gaze slowly. "Now you
understand why I didn't after all . . . didn't go out in that way. I
wasn't going to be frightened at what I had done. And, anyhow, if
I had stuck to the ship I would have done my best to be saved. Men
have been known to float for hours -- in the open sea -- and be picked
up not much the worse for it. I might have lasted it out better
than many others. There's nothing the matter with my heart." He
withdrew his right fist from his pocket, and the blow he struck on
his chest resounded like a muffled detonation in the night.
  ' "No," I said. He meditated, with his legs slightly apart and his
chin sunk. "A hair's-breadth," he muttered. "Not the breadth of
a hair between this and that. And at the time . . ."
  ' "It is difficult to see a hair at midnight," I put in, a little
viciously I fear. Don't you see what I mean by the solidarity of the
craft? I was aggrieved against him, as though he had cheated me --
me! -- of a splendid opportunity to keep up the illusion of my begin-
nings, as though he had robbed our common life of the last spark
of its glamour. "And so you cleared out -- at once."
  ' "Jumped," he corrected me incisively. "Jumped -- mind!" he
repeated, and I wondered at the evident but obscure intention.
"Well, yes! Perhaps I could not see then. But I had plenty of time
and any amount of light in that boat. And I could think too. Nobody
would know, of course, but this did not make it any easier for me.
You've got to believe that too. I did not want all this talk....
No . . . Yes . . . I won't lie . . . I wanted it: it is the very thing I
wanted -- there. Do you think you or anybody could have made me
if I . . . I am -- I am not afraid to tell. And I wasn't afraid to think
either. I looked it in the face. I wasn't going to run away. At first --
at night, if it hadn't been for those fellows I might have . . . No!
by heavens! I was not going to give them that satisfaction. They
had done enough. They made up a story, and believed it for all I
know. But I knew the truth, and I would live it down -- alone, with
myself. I wasn't going to give in to such a beastly unfair thing. What
did it prove after all? I was confoundedly cut up. Sick of life -- to
tell you the truth; but what would have been the good to shirk it --
in -- in -- that way? That was not the way. I believe -- I believe it
would have -- it would have ended -- nothing."
  'He had been walking up and down, but with the last word he
turned short at me.
  ' "What do you believe?" he asked with violence. A pause ensued,
and suddenly I felt myself overcome by a profound and hopeless
fatigue, as though his voice had startled me out of a dream of
wandering through empty spaces whose immensity had harassed
my soul and exhausted my body.
  ' " . . . Would have ended nothing," he muttered over me obsti-
nately, after a little while. "No! the proper thing was to face it out --
alone -- for myself -- wait for another chance -- find out . . ." '

                   CHAPTER 12

  'All around everything was still as far as the ear could reach.
The mist of his feelings shifted between us, as if disturbed by his
struggles, and in the rifts of the immaterial veil he would appear to
my staring eyes distinct of form and pregnant with vague appeal
like a symbolic figure in a picture. The chill air of the night seemed
to lie on my limbs as heavy as a slab of marble.
  ' "I see," I murmured, more to prove to myself that I could break
my state of numbness than for any other reason.
  ' "The Avondale picked us up just before sunset," he remarked
moodily. "Steamed right straight for us. We had only to sit and
wait."
  'After a long interval, he said, "They told their story." And again
there was that oppressive silence. "Then only I knew what it was I
had made up my mind to," he added.
  ' "You said nothing," I whispered.
  ' "What could I say?" he asked, in the same low tone....
"Shock slight. Stopped the ship. Ascertained the damage. Took
measures to get the boats out without creating a panic. As the first
boat was lowered ship went down in a squall. Sank like lead....
What could be more clear" . . . he hung his head . . . "and more
awful?" His lips quivered while he looked straight into my eyes. "I
had jumped -- hadn't I?" he asked, dismayed. "That's what I had
to live down. The story didn't matter." . . . He clasped his hands
for an instant, glanced right and left into the gloom: "It was like
cheating the dead," he stammered.
  ' "And there were no dead," I said.
  'He went away from me at this . That is the only way I can describe
it. In a moment I saw his back close to the balustrade. He stood
there for some time, as if admiring the purity and the peace of
the night. Some flowering-shrub in the garden below spread its
powerful scent through the damp air. He returned to me with hasty
steps.
  ' "And that did not matter," he said, as stubbornly as you please.
  ' "Perhaps not," I admitted. I began to have a notion he was too
much for me. After all, what did I know?
  ' "Dead or not dead, I could not get clear," he said. "I had to
live; hadn't I?"
  ' "Well, yes -- if you take it in that way," I mumbled.
  ' "I was glad, of course," he threw out carelessly, with his mind
fixed on something else. "The exposure," he pronounced slowly,
and lifted his head. "Do you know what was my first thought when
I heard? I was relieved. I was relieved to learn that those shouts-
did I tell you I had heard shouts? No? Well, I did. Shouts for
help . . . blown along with the drizzle. Imagination, I suppose.
And yet I can hardly ... How stupid.... The others did not. I
asked them afterwards. They all said No. No? And I was hearing
them even then! I might have known -- but I didn't think -- I only
listened. Very faint screams -- day after day. Then that little half-
caste chap here came up and spoke to me. 'The Patna . . . French
gunboat. . . towed successfully to Aden. . . Investigation. . .
Marine Office . . . Sailors' Home . . . arrangements made for your
board and lodging!' I walked along with him, and I enjoyed the
silence. So there had been no shouting. Imagination. I had to believe
him. I could hear nothing any more. I wonder how long I could
have stood it. It was getting worse, too . . . I mean -- louder."
'He fell into thought.
  ' "And I had heard nothing! Well -- so be it. But the lights! The
lights did go! We did not see them. They were not there. If they
had been, I would have swam back -- I would have gone back and
shouted alongside -- I would have begged them to take me on
board.... I would have had my chance.... You doubt me? ...
How do you know how I felt?... What right have you to
doubt? . . . I very nearly did it as it was -- do you understand?" His
voice fell. "There was not a glimmer -- not a glimmer," he protested
mournfully. "Don't you understand that if there had been, you
would not have seen me here? You see me -- and you doubt."
  'I shook my head negatively. This question of the lights being
lost sight of when the boat could not have been more than a quarter
of a mile from the ship was a matter for much discussion. Jim stuck
to it that there was nothing to be seen after the first shower had
cleared away; and the others had affirmed the same thing to the
officers of the Avondale. Of course people shook their heads and
smiled. One old skipper who sat near me in court tickled my ear
with his white beard to murmur, "Of course they would lie." As a
matter of fact nobody lied; not even the chief engineer with his
story of the mast-head light dropping like a match you throw down.
Not consciously, at least. A man with his liver in such a state might
very well have seen a floating spark in the corner of his eye when
stealing a hurried glance over his shoulder. They had seen no light
of any sort though they were well within range, and they could only
explain this in one way: the ship had gone down. It was obvious
and comforting. The foreseen fact coming so swiftly had justified
their haste. No wonder they did not cast about for any other expla-
nation. Yet the true one was very simple, and as soon as Brierly
suggested it the court ceased to bother about the question. If you
remember, the ship had been stopped, and was lying with her head
on the course steered through the night, with her stern canted high
and her bows brought low down in the water through the filling of
the fore-compartment. Being thus out of trim, when the squall
struck her a little on the quarter, she swung head to wind as sharply
as though she had been at anchor. By this change in her position all
her lights were in a very few moments shut off from the boat to
leeward. It may very well be that, had they been seen, they would
have had the effect of a mute appeal -- that their glimmer lost in the
darkness of the cloud would have had the mysterious power of the
human glance that can awaken the feelings of remorse and pity. It
would have said, "I am here -- still here" . . . and what more can
the eye of the most forsaken of human beings say? But she turned
her back on them as if in disdain of their fate: she had swung round,
burdened, to glare stubbornly at the new danger of the open sea
which she so strangely survived to end her days in a breaking-up
yard, as if it had been her recorded fate to die obscurely under the
blows of many hammers. What were the various ends their destiny
provided for the pilgrims I am unable to say; but the immediate
future brought, at about nine o'clock next morning, a French gun-
boat homeward bound from Reunion. The report of her com-
mander was public property. He had swept a little out of his course
to ascertain what was the matter with that steamer floating danger-
ously by the head upon a still and hazy sea. There was an ensign,
union down, flying at her main gaff (the serang had the sense to
make a signal of distress at daylight); but the cooks were preparing
the food in the cooking-boxes forward as usual. The decks were
packed as close as a sheep-pen: there were people perched all along
the rails, jammed on the bridge in a solid mass; hundreds of eyes
stared, and not a sound was heard when the gunboat ranged abreast,
as if all that multitude of lips had been sealed by a spell.
  'The Frenchman hailed, could get no intelligible reply, and after
ascertaining through his binoculars that the crowd on deck did not
look plague-stricken, decided to send a boat. Two officers came on
board, listened to the serang, tried to talk with the Arab, couldn't
make head or tail of it: but of course the nature of the emergency was
obvious enough. They were also very much struck by discovering a
white man, dead and curled up peacefully on the bridge. "Fort
intrigues par ce cadavre," as I was informed a long time after by an
elderly French lieutenant whom I came across one afternoon in
Sydney, by the merest chance, in a sort of cafe, and who remem-
bered the affair perfectly. Indeed this affair, I may notice in passing,
had an extraordinary power of defying the shortness of memories
and the length of time: it seemed to live, with a sort of uncanny
vitality, in the minds of men, on the tips of their tongues. I've had
the questionable pleasure of meeting it often, years afterwards,
thousands of miles away, emerging from the remotest possible talk,
coming to the surface of the most distant allusions. Has it not turned
up to-night between us? And I am the only seaman here. I am the
only one to whom it is a memory. And yet it has made its way out!
But if two men who, unknown to each other, knew of this affair
met accidentally on any spot of this earth, the thing would pop up
between them as sure as fate, before they parted. I had never seen
that Frenchman before, and at the end of an hour we had done with
each other for life: he did not seem particularly talkative either; he
was a quiet, massive chap in a creased uniform, sitting drowsily
over a tumbler half full of some dark liquid. His shoulder-straps
were a bit tarnished, his clean-shaved cheeks were large and sallow;
he looked like a man who would be given to taking snuff -- don't
you know? I won't say he did; but the habit would have fitted that
kind of man. It all began by his handing me a number of Home
News, which I didn't want, across the marble table. I said "Merci."
We exchanged a few apparently innocent remarks, and suddenly,
before I knew how it had come about, we were in the midst of it,
and he was telling me how much they had been "intrigued by that
corpse." It turned out he had been one of the boarding officers.
  'In the establishment where we sat one could get a variety of
foreign drinks which were kept for the visiting naval officers, and
he took a sip of the dark medical-looking stuff, which probably was
nothing more nasty than cassis a l'eau, and glancing with one eye
into the tumbler, shook his head slightly. "Impossible de com-
prendre -- vous concevez," he said, with a curious mixture of uncon-
cern and thoughtfulness. I could very easily conceive how
impossible it had been for them to understand. Nobody in the
gunboat knew enough English to get hold of the story as told by
the serang. There was a good deal of noise, too, round the two
officers. "They crowded upon us. There was a circle round that
dead man (autour de ce mort)," he described. "One had to attend to
the most pressing. These people were beginning to agitate them-
selves -- Parbleu! A mob like that -- don't you see?" he interjected
with philosophic indulgence. As to the bulkhead, he had advised
his commander that the safest thing was to leave it alone, it was so
villainous to look at. They got two hawsers on board promptly (en
toute hale) and took the Patna in tow -- stern foremost at that --
which, under the circumstances, was not so foolish, since the rudder
was too much out of the water to be of any great use for steering,
and this manoeuvre eased the strain on the bulkhead, whose state,
he expounded with stolid glibness, demanded the greatest care
(exigeait les plus grands menagements). I could not help thinking that
my new acquaintance must have had a voice in most of these
arrangements: he looked a reliable officer, no longer very active,
and he was seamanlike too, in a way, though as he sat there, with
his thick fingers clasped lightly on his stomach, he reminded you
of one of those snuffy, quiet village priests, into whose ears are
poured the sins, the sufferings, the remorse of peasant generations,
on whose faces the placid and simple expression is like a veil thrown
over the mystery of pain and distress. He ought to have had a
threadbare black soutane buttoned smoothly up to his ample chin,
instead of a frock-coat with shoulder-straps and brass buttons. His
broad bosom heaved regularly while he went on telling me that it
had been the very devil of a job, as doubdess (sans doute) I could
figure to myself in my quality of a seaman (en votre qualite de marin).
At the end of the period he inclined his body slightly towards me,
and, pursing his shaved lips, allowed the air to escape with a gentle
hiss. "Luckily," he continued, "the sea was level like this table,
and there was no more wind than there is here." . . . The place
struck me as indeed intolerably stuffy, and very hot; my face burned
as though I had been young enough to be embarrassed and blushing.
They had directed their course, he pursued, to the nearest English
port "naturellement," where their responsibility ceased, "Dieu
merci." ... He blew out his flat cheeks a little.... "Because, mind
you (notez bien), all the time of towing we had two quartermasters
stationed with axes by the hawsers, to cut us clear of our tow in case
she . . ." He fluttered downwards his heavy eyelids, making his
meaning as plain as possible.... "What would you! One does what
one can (on fait ce qu'on peut)," and for a moment he managed to
invest his ponderous immobility with an air of resignation. "Two
quartermasters -- thirty hours -- always there. Two!" he repeated,
lifting up his right hand a little, and exhibiting two fingers. This
was absolutely the first gesture I saw him make. It gave me the
opportunity to "note" a starred scar on the back of his hand -- effect
of a gunshot clearly; and, as if my sight had been made more acute
by this discovery, I perceived also the seam of an old wound, begin-
ning a little below the temple and going out of sight under the short
grey hair at the side of his head -- the graze of a spear or the cut of
a sabre. He clasped his hands on his stomach again. "I remained
on board that -- that -- my memory is going (s'en va). Ah! Patt-na.
C'est bien ca. Patt-na. Merci. It is droll how one forgets. I stayed on
that ship thirty hours...."
  ' "You did!" I exclaimed. Still gazing at his hands, he pursed his
lips a little, but this time made no hissing sound. "It was judged
proper," he said, lifting his eyebrows dispassionately, "that one of
the officers should remain to keep an eye open (pour ouvrir
l'oeil)" . . . he sighed idly . . . "and for communicating by signals
with the towing ship -- do you see? -- and so on. For the rest, it was
my opinion too. We made our boats ready to drop over -- and I also
on that ship took measures.... Enfin! One has done one's possible.
It was a delicate position. Thirty hours! They prepared me some
food. As for the wine -- go and whistle for it -- not a drop." In some
extraordinary way, without any marked change in his inert attitude
and in the placid expression of his face, he managed to convey the
idea of profound disgust. "I -- you know -- when it comes to eating
without my glass of wine -- I am nowhere."
  'I was afraid he would enlarge upon the grievance, for though he
didn't stir a limb or twitch a feature, he made one aware how much
he was irritated by the recollection. But he seemed to forget all
about it. They delivered their charge to the "port authorities," as
he expressed it. He was struck by the calmness with which it had
been received. "One might have thought they had such a droll find
(drole de trouvaille) brought them every day. You are extraordinary --
you others," he commented, with his back propped against the
wall, and looking himself as incapable of an emotional display as a
sack of meal. There happened to be a man-of-war and an Indian
Marine steamer in dhe harbour at the time, and he did not conceal
his admiration of the efficient manner in which the boats of these
two ships cleared the Patna of her passengers. Indeed his torpid
demeanour concealed nothing: it had that mysterious, almost mir-
aculous, power of producing striking effects by means impossible
of detection which is the last word of the highest art. "Twenty-
five munutes -- watch in hand -- twenty-five, no more." . . . He
unclasped and clasped again his fingers without removing his hands
from his stomach, and made it infinitely more effective than if he
had thrown up his arms to heaven in amazement.... "All that lot
(tout ce monde) on shore -- with their little affairs -- nobody left but
a guard of seamen (marins de l'Etat) and that interesting corpse
(cet interessant cadavre). Twenty-five minutes." . . . With downcast
eyes and his head tilted slightly on one side he seemed to roll know-
ingly on his tongue the savour of a smart bit of work. He persuaded
one without any further demonstration that his approval was emi-
nendy worth having, and resuming his hardly interrupted immo-
bility he went on to inform me that, being under orders to make
the best of their way to Toulon, they left in two hours' time, "so
that (de sorte que) there are many things in this incident of my life
(dans cet episode de ma vie) which have remained obscure." '

                          CHAPTER 13

  'After these words, and without a change of attitude, he, so to
speak, submitted himself passively to a state of silence. I kept him
company; and suddenly, but not abruptly, as if the appointed time
had arrived for his moderate and husky voice to come out of his
immobility, he pronounced, "Mon Dieu! how the time passes!"
Nothing could have been more commonplace than this remark;
but its utterance coincided for me with a moment of vision. It's
extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull
ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well; and it may
be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable
majority so supportable and so welcome. Nevertheless, there can
be but few of us who had never known one of these rare moments
of awakening when we see, hear, understand ever so much -- every-
thing -- in a flash -- before we fall back again into our agreeable
somnolence. I raised my eyes when he spoke, and I saw him as
though I had never seen him before. I saw his chin sunk on his
breast, the clumsy folds of his coat, his clasped hands, his motion-
less pose, so curiously suggestive of his having been simply left
there. Time had passed indeed: it had overtaken him and gone
ahead. It had left him hopelessly behind with a few poor gifts: the
iron-grey hair, the heavy fatigue of the tanned face, two scars, a
pair of tarnished shoulder-straps; one of those steady, reliable men
who are the raw material of great reputations, one of those
uncounted lives that are buried without drums and trumpets under
the foundations of monumental successes. "I am now third lieuten-
ant of the Victorieuse" (she was the flagship of the French Pacific
squadron at the time), he said, detaching his shoulders from the
wall a couple of inches to introduce himself. I bowed slightly on my
side of the table, and told him I commanded a merchant vessel at
present anchored in Rushcutters' Bay. He had "remarked" her, --
a pretty little craft. He was very civil about it in his impassive way.
I even fancy he went the length of tilting his head in compliment
as he repeated, breathing visibly the while, "Ah, yes. A little craft
painted black -- very pretty -- very pretty (tres coquet)." After a time
he twisted his body slowly to face the glass door on our right. "A
dull town (triste ville)," he observed, staring into the street. It was
a brilliant day; a southerly buster was raging, and we could see the
passers-by, men and women, buffeted by the wind on the sidewalks,
the sunlit fronts of the houses across the road blurred by the tall
whirls of dust. "I descended on shore," he said, "to stretch my legs
a little, but . . ." He didn't finish, and sank into the depths of his
repose. "Pray -- tell me," he began, coming up ponderously, "what
was there at the bottom of this affair -- precisely (au juste)? It is
curious. That dead man, for instance -- and so on."
  ' "There were living men too," I said; "much more curious."
  ' "No doubt, no doubt," he agreed half audibly, then, as if after
mature consideration, murmured, "Evidently." I made no diffi-
culty in communicating to him what had interested me most in this
affair. It seemed as though he had a right to know: hadn't he spent
thirty hours on board the Palna -- had he not taken the succession,
so to speak, had he not done "his possible"? He listened to me,
looking more priest-like than ever, and with what -- probably on
account of his downcast eyes -- had the appearance of devout concen-
tration. Once or twice he elevated his eyebrows (but without raising
his eyelids), as one would say "The devil!" Once he calmly
exclaimed, "Ah, bah!" under his breath, and when I had finished
he pursed his lips in a deliberate way and emitted a sort of sorrowful
whistle.
  'In any one else it might have been an evidence of boredom, a
sign of indifference; but he, in his occult way, managed to make
his immobility appear profoundly responsive, and as full of valuable
thoughts as an egg is of meat. What he said at last was nothing
more than a "Very interesting," pronounced politely, and not much
above a whisper. Before I got over my disappointment he added,
but as if speaking to himself, "That's it. That is it." His chin seemed
to sink lower on his breast, his body to weigh heavier on his seat. I
was about to ask him what he meant, when a sort of preparatory
tremor passed over his whole person, as a faint ripple may be seen
upon stagnant water even before the wind is felt. "And so that poor
young man ran away along with the others," he said, with grave
tranquillity.
  'I don't know what made me smile: it is the only genuine smile
of mine I can remember in connection with Jim's affair. But some-
how this simple statement of the matter sounded funny in
French.... "S'est enfui avec les autres," had said the lieutenant.
And suddenly I began to admire the discrimination of the man. He
had made out the point at once: he did get hold of the only thing I
cared about. I felt as though I were taking professional opinion on
the case. His imperturbable and mature calmness was that of an
expert in possession of the facts, and to whom one's perplexities are
mere child's-play. "Ah! The young, the young," he said indul-
gently. "And after all, one does not die of it." "Die of what?" I
asked swiftly. "Of being afraid." He elucidated his meaning and
sipped his drink.
  'I perceived that the three last fingers of his wounded hand were
stiff and could not move independently of each other, so that he
took up his tumbler with an ungainly clutch. "One is always afraid.
One may talk, but ..." He put down the glass awkwardly....
"The fear, the fear -- look you -- it is always there." . . . He touched
his breast near a brass button, on the very spot where Jim had given
a thump to his own when protesting that there was nothing the
matter with his heart. I suppose I made some sign of dissent,
because he insisted, "Yes! yes! One talks, one talks; this is all very
fine; but at the end of the reckoning one is no cleverer than the next
man -- and no more brave. Brave! This is always to be seen. I
have rolled my hump (roule ma bosse)," he said, using the slang
expression with imperturbable seriousness, "in all parts of the
world; I have known brave men -- famous ones! Allez!" . . . He
drank carelessly.... "Brave -- you conceive -- in the Service -- one
has got to be -- the trade demands it (le metier veut ca). Is it not so?"
he appealed to me reasonably. "Eh bien! Each of them -- I say each
of them, if he were an honest man -- bien entendu -- would confess
that there is a point -- there is a point -- for the best of us -- there is
somewhere a point when you let go everything (vous lachez tout).
And you have got to live with that truth -- do you see? Given a
certain combination of circumstances, fear is sure to come. Abomin-
able funk (un trac epouvantable). And even for those who do not
believe this truth there is fear all the same -- the fear of themselves.
Absolutely so. Trust me. Yes. Yes.... At my age one knows what
one is talking about - que diable!" . . . He had delivered himself of
all this as immovably as though he had been the mouthpiece of
abstract wisdom, but at this point he heightened the effect of
detachment by beginning to twirl his thumbs slowly. "It's evident --
parbleu!" he continued; "for, make up your mind as much as you
like, even a simple headache or a fit of indigestion (un derangement
d'estomac) is enough to . . . Take me, for instance -- I have made
my proofs. Eh bien! I, who am speaking to you, once . . ."
  'He drained his glass and returned to his twirling. "No, no; one
does not die of it," he pronounced finally, and when I found he did
not mean to proceed with the personal anecdote, I was extremely
disappointed; the more so as it was not the sort of story, you know,
one could very well press him for. I sat silent, and he too, as if
nothing could please him better. Even his thumbs were still now.
Suddenly his lips began to move. "That is so," he resumed placidly.
"Man is born a coward (L'homme est ne poltron). It is a difficulty --
parbleu! It would be too easy other vise. But habit -- habit -- neces-
sity -- do you see? -- the eye of others -- voila. One puts up with it.
And then the example of others who are no better than yourself,
and yet make good countenance...."
  'His voice ceased.
  ' "That young man -- you will observe -- had none of these induce-
ments -- at least at the moment," I remarked.
  'He raised his eyebrows forgivingly: "I don't say; I don't say.
The young man in question might have had the best dispositions --
the best dispositions," he repeated, wheezing a little.
  ' "I am glad to see you taking a lenient view," I said. 'His own
feeling in the matter was -- ah! -- hopeful, and . . ."
  'The shuffle of his feet under the table interrupted me. He drew
up his heavy eyelids. Drew up, I say -- no other expression can
describe the steady deliberation of the act -- and at last was disclosed
completely to me. I was confronted by two narrow grey circlets,
like two tiny steel rings around the profound blackness of the
pupils. The sharp glance, coming from that massive body, gave
a notion of extreme efficiency, like a razor-edge on a battle-axe.
"Pardon," he said punctiliously. His right hand went up, and he
swayed forward. "Allow me . . . I contended that one may get on
knowing very well that one's courage does not come of itself (ne
vient pas tout seul). There's nothing much in that to get upset
about. One truth the more ought not to make life impossible....
But the honour -- the honour, monsieur! . . . The honour . . . that
is real -- that is! And what life may be worth when" . . . he got on
his feet with a ponderous impetuosity, as a startled ox might scram-
ble up from the grass . . . "when the honour is gone -- ah ca! par
exemple -- I can offer no opinion. I can offer no opinion -- because --
monsieur -- I know nothing of it."
  'I had risen too, and, tnrying to throw infinite politeness into our
attitudes, we faced each other mutely, like two china dogs on a
mantelpiece. Hang the fellow! he had pricked the bubble. The
blight of futility that lies in wait for men's speeches had fallen upon
our conversation, and made it a thing of empty sounds. "Very
well," I said, with a disconcerted smile; "but couldn't it reduce
itself to not being found out?" He made as if to retort readily, but
when he spoke he had changed his mind. "This, monsieur, is too
fine for me -- much above me -- I don't think about it." He bowed
heavily over his cap, which he held before him by the peak, between
the thumb and the forefinger of his wounded hand. I bowed too.
We bowed together: we scraped our feet at each other with much
ceremony, while a dirty specimen of a waiter looked on critically,
as though he had paid for the performance. "Serviteur," said the
Frenchman. Another scrape. "Monsieur" . . . "Monsieur." . . .
The glass door swung behind his burly back. I saw the southerly
buster get hold of him and drive him down wind with his hand to
his head, his shoulders braced, and the tails of his coat blown hard
against his legs.
  'I sat down again alone and discouraged -- discouraged about
Jim's case. If you wonder that after more than three years it had
preserved its actuality, you must know that I had seen him only
very lately. I had come straight from Samarang, where I had loaded
a cargo for Sydney: an utterly uninteresting bit of business, -- what
Charley here would call one of my rational transactions, -- and in
Samarang I had seen something of Jim. He was then working for De
Jongh, on my recommendation. Water-clerk. "My representative
afloat," as De Jongh called him. You can't imagine a mode of life
more barren of consolation, less capable of being invested with a
spark of glamour -- unless it be the business of an insurance can-
vasser. Little Bob Stanton -- Charley here knew him well -- had gone
through that experience. The same who got drowned afterwards
trying to save a lady's-maid in the Sephora disaster. A case of colli-
sion on a hazy morning off the Spanish coast -- you may remember.
All the passengers had been packed tidily into the boats and shoved
clear of the ship, when Bob sheered alongside again and scrambled
back on deck to fetch that girl. How she had been left behind I
can't make out; anyhow, she had gone completely crazy -- wouldn't
leave the ship -- held to the rail like grim death. The wrestling-
match could be seen plainly from the boats; but poor Bob was the
shortest chief mate in the merchant senice, and the woman stood
five feet ten in her shoes and was as strong as a horse, I've been told.
So it went on, pull devil, pull baker, the wretched girl screaming all
the time, and Bob letting out a yell now and then to warn his boat
to keep well clear of the ship. One of the hands told me, hiding a
smile at the recollection, "It was for all the world, sir, like a naughty
youngster fighting with his mother. " The same old chap said that
"At the last we could see that Mr. Stanton had given up hauling at
the gal, and just stood by looking at her, watchful like. We thought
afterwards he must've been reckoning that, maybe, the rush of
water would tear her away from the rail by-and-by and give him a
show to save her. We daren't come alongside for our life; and after
a bit the old ship went down all on a sudden with a lurch to star-
board -- plop. The suck in was something awful. We never saw
anything alive or dead come up." Poor Bob's spell of shore-life had
been one of the complications of a love affair, I believe. He fondly
hoped he had done with the sea for ever, and made sure he had got
hold of all the bliss on earth, but it came to canvassing in the end.
Some cousin of his in Liverpool put up to it. He used to tell us
his experiences in that line. He made us laugh till we cried, and,
not altogether displeased at the effect, undersized and bearded to
the waist like a gnome, he would tiptoe amongst us and say, "It's
all very well for you beggars to laugh, but my immortal soul was
shrivelled down to the size of a parched pea after a week of that
work." I don't know how Jim's soul accommodated itself to the
new conditions of his life -- I was kept too busy in getting him
something to do that would keep body and soul together -- but I am
pretty certain his adventurous fancy was suffering all the pangs of
starvation. It had certainly nothing to feed upon in this new calling.
It was distressing to see him at it, though he tackled it with a
stubborn serenity for which I must give him full credit. I kept my
eye on his shabby plodding with a sort of notion that it was a
punishment for the heroics of his fancy -- an expiation for his craving
after more glamour than he could carry . He had loved too well to
imagine himself a glorious racehorse, and now he was condemned
to toil without honour like a costermonger's donkey. He did it very
well. He shut himself in, put his head down, said never a word.
Very well; very well indeed -- except for certain fantastic and violent
outbreaks, on the deplorable occasions when the irrepressible Patna
case cropped up. Unfortunately that scandal of the Eastern seas
would not die out. And this is the reason why I could never feel I
had done with Jim for good.
  'I sat thinking of him after the French lieutenant had left, not,
however, in connection with De Jongh's cool and gloomy back-
shop, where we had hurriedly shaken hands not very long ago, but
as I had seen him years before in the last flickers of the candle, alone
with me in the long gallen of the Malabar House, with the chill
and the darkness of the night at his back. The respectable sword of
his country's law was suspended over his head. To-morrow -- or
was it to-day? (midnight had slipped by long before we parted) -- the
marble-faced police magistrate, after distributing fines and terms of
imprisonment in the assault-and-battery case, would take up the
awful weapon and smite his bowed neck. Our communion in the
night was uncommonly like a last vigil with a condemned man. He
was guilty too. He was guilty -- as I had told myself repeatedly,
guilty and done for; nevertheless, I wished to spare him the mere
detail of a formal execution. I don't pretend to explain the reasons
of my desire -- I don't think I could; but if you haven't got a sort of
notion by this time, then I must have been very obscure in my
narrative, or you too sleepy to seize upon the sense of my words. I
don't defend my morality. There was no morality in the impulse
which induced me to lay before him Brierly's plan of evasion -- I
may call it -- in all its primitive simplicity. There were the rupees --
absolutely ready in my pocket and very much at his service. Oh! a
loan; a loan of course -- and if an introduction to a man (in Rangoon)
who could put some work in his way . . . Why! with the greatest
pleasure. I had pen, ink, and paper in my room on the first floor
And even while I was speaking I was impatient to begin the letter --
day, month, yeu, 2.30 A.M.... for the sake of our old friendship
I ask you to put some work in the way of Mr. James So-and-so, in
whom, &c., &c.... I was even ready to write in that strain about
him. If he had not enlisted my sympathies he had done better for
himself -- he had gone to the very fount and origin of that sentiment
he had reached the secret sensibility of my egoism. I am concealing
nothing from you, because were I to do so my action would appear
more unintelligible than any man's action has the right to be, and --
in the second place -- to-morrow you will forget my sincerity along
with the other lessons of the past. In this transaction, to speak
grossly and precisely, I was the irreproachable man; but the subtle
intentions of my immorality were defeated by the moral simplicity
of the criminal. No doubt he was selfish too, but his selfishness had
a higher origin, a more lofty aim. I discovered that, say what I
would, he was eager to go through the ceremony of execution, and
I didn't say much, for I felt that in argument his youth would tell
against me heavily: he believed where I had already ceased to doubt.
There was something fine in the wildness of his unexpressed, hardly
formulated hope. "Clear out! Couldn't think of it," he said, with a
shake of the head. "I make you an offer for which I neither demand
nor expect any sort of gratitude," I said; "you shall repay the money
when convenient, and . . ." "Awfully good of you," he muttered
without looking up. I watched him narrowly: the future must have
appeared horribly uncertain to him; but he did not falter, as though
indeed there had been nothing wrong with his heart. I felt angry --
not for the first time that night. "The whole wretched business," I
said, "is bitter enough, I should think, for a man of your kind . . ."
"It is, it is," he whispered twice, with his eyes fixed on the floor. It
was heartrending. He towered above the light, and I could see the
down on his cheek, the colour mantling warm under the smooth
skin of his face. Believe me or not, I say it was outrageously heart-
rending. It provoked me to brutality. "Yes," I said; "and allow me
to confess that I am totally unable to imagine what advantage you
can expect from this licking of the dregs." "Advantage!" he mur-
mured out of his stillness. "I am dashed if I do," I said, enraged.
"I've been trying to tell you all there is in it," he went on slowly,
as if meditating something unanswerable. "But after all, it is my
trouble." I opened my mouth to retort, and discovered suddenly
that I'd lost all confidence in myself; and it was as if he too had
given me up, for he mumbled like a man thinking half aloud. "Went
away ... went into hospitals.... Not one of them would face
it.... They! ..." He moved his hand slightly to imply disdain.
"But I've got to get over this thing, and I mustn't shirk any of it
or . . . I won't shirk any of it." He was silent. He gazed as though
he had been haunted. His unconscious face reflected the passing
expressions of scorn, of despair, of resoludon -- reflected them in
turn, as a magic mirror would reflect the gliding passage of
unearthly shapes. He lived surrounded by deceitful ghosts, by aus-
tere shades. "Oh! nonsense, my dear fellow," I began. He had a
movement of impatience. "You don't seem to understand," he said
incisively; then looking at me without a wink, "I may have jumped,
but I don't run away." "I meant no offence," I said; and added
stupidly, "Better men than you have found it expedient to run, at
times." He coloured all over, while in my confusion I half-choked
myself with my own tongue. "Perhaps so," he said at last, "I am
not good enough; I can't afford it. I am bound to fight this thing
down -- I am fighting it now." I got out of my chair and felt stiff all
over. The silence was embarrassing, and to put an end to it I
imagined nothing better but to remark, "I had no idea it was so
late," in an airy tone.... "I dare say you have had enough of this,"
he said brusquely: "and to tell you the truth" -- he began to look
round for his hat -- "so have I."
  'Well! he had refused this unique offer. He had struck aside my
helping hand; he was ready to go now, and beyond the balustrade
the night seemed to wait for him very still, as though he had been
marked down for its prey. I heard his voice. "Ah! here it is." He
had found his hat. For a few seconds we hung in the wind. "What
will you do after -- after . . ." I asked very low. "Go to the dogs as
likely as not," he answered in a gruff mutter. I had recovered my
wits in a measure, and judged best to take it lightly. "Pray remem-
ber," I said, "that I should like very much to see you again before
you go." "I don't know what's to prevent you. The damned thing
won't make me invisible," he said with intense bitterness, -- "no
such luck." And then at the moment of taking leave he treated me
to a ghastly muddle of dubious stammers and movements, to an
awful display of hesitations. God forgive him -- me! He had taken
it into his fanciful head that I was likely to make some difficulty as
to shaking hands. It was too awful for words. I believe I shouted
suddenly at him as you would bellow to a man you saw about to walk
over a cliff; I remember our voices being raised, the appearance of
a miserable grin on his face, a crushing clutch on my hand, a nervous
laugh. The candle spluttered out, and the thing was over at last,
with a groan that floated up to me in the dark. He got himself
away somehow. The night swallowed his form. He was a horrible
bungler. Horrible. I heard the quick crunch-crunch of the gravel
under his boots. He was running. Absolutely running, with
nowhere to go to. And he was not yet four-and-twenty.'

                       CHAPTER 14

  'I slept little, hurried over my breakfast, and after a slight hesita-
tion gave up my early morning visit to my ship. It was really very
wrong of me, because, though my chief mate was an excellent man
all round, he was the victim of such black imaginings that if he did
not get a letter from his wife at the expected time he would go quite
distracted with rage and jealousy, lose all grip on the work, quarrel
with all hands, and either weep in his cabin or develop such a
ferocity of temper as all but drove the crew to the verge of mutiny.
The thing had always seemed inexplicable to me: they had been
married thirteen years; I had a glimpse of her once, and, honestly,
I couldn't conceive a man abandoned enough to plunge into sin for
the sake of such an unattractive person. I don't know whether I
have not done wrong by refraining from putting that view before
poor Selvin: the man made a little hell on earth for himself, and I
also suffered indirectly, but some sort of, no doubt, false delicacy
prevented me. The marital relations of seamen would make an
interesting subject, and I could tell you instances.... However,
this is not the place, nor the time, and we are concerned with Jim --
who was unmarried. If his imaginative conscience or his pride; if all
the extravagant ghosts and austere shades that were the disastrous
familiars of his youth would not let him run away from the block,
I, who of course can't be suspected of such familiars, was irresistibly
impelled to go and see his head roll off. I wended my way towards
the court. I didn't hope to be very much impressed or edified, or
interested or even frightened -- though, as long as there is any life
before one, a jolly good fright now and then is a salutary discipline.
But neither did I expect to be so awfully depressed. The bitterness
of his punishment was in its chill and mean atmosphere. The real
significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the com-
munity of mankind, and from that point of view he was no mean
traitor, but his execution was a hole-and-corner affair. There was
no high scaffolding, no scarlet cloth (did they have scarlet cloth on
Tower Hill? They should have had), no awe-stricken multitude to
be horrified at his guilt and be moved to tears at his fate -- no air of
sombre retribution. There was, as I walked along, the clear sun-
shine, a brilliance too passionate to be consoling, the streets full of
jumbled bits of colour like a damaged kaleidoscope: yellow, green,
blue, dazzling white, the brown nudity of an undraped shoulder, a
bullock-cart with a red canopy, a company of native infantry in a
drab body with dark heads marching in dusty laced boots, a native
policeman in a sombre uniform of scanty cut and belted in patent
leather, who looked up at me with orientally pitiful eyes as though
his migrating spirit were suffering exceedingly from that unfore-
seen -- what d'ye call 'em? -- avatar -- incarnation. Under the shade
of a lonely tree in the courtyard, the villagers connected with the
assault case sat in a picturesque group, looking like a chromo-litho-
graph of a camp in a book of Eastern travel. One missed the obliga-
tory thread of smoke in the foreground and the pack-animals
grazing. A blank yellow wall rose behind overtopping the tree,
reflecdng the glare. The court-room was sombre, seemed more vast.
High up in the dim space the punkahs were swaying short to and
fro, to and fro. Here and there a draped figure, dwarfed by the
bare walls, remained without stirring amongst the rows of empty
benches, as if absorbed in pious meditation. The plaintiff, who had
been beaten, -- an obese chocolate-coloured man with shaved head,
one fat breast bare and a bright yellow caste-mark above the bridge
of his nose, -- sat in pompous immobility: only his eyes glittered,
rolling in the gloom, and the nostrils dilated and collapsed violently
as he breathed. Brierly dropped into his seat looking done up, as
though he had spent the night in sprinting on a cinder-track. The
pious sailing-ship skipper appeared excited and made uneasy move-
ments, as if restraining with difficulty an impulse to stand up and
exhort us earnestly to prayer and repentance. The head of the
magistrate, delicately pale under the neatly arranged hair,
resembled the head of a hopeless invalid after he had been washed
and brushed and propped up in bed. He moved aside the vase of
flowers -- a bunch of purple with a few pink blossoms on long stalks --
and seizing in both hands a long sheet of bluish paper, ran his eye
over it, propped his forearms on the edge of the desk, and began to
read aloud in an even, distinct, and careless voice.
  'By Jove! For all my foolishness about scaffolds and heads rolling
off -- I assure you it was infinitely worse than a beheading. A heavy
sense of finality brooded over all this, unrelieved by the hope of rest
and safety following the fall of the axe. These proceedings had
all the cold vengefulness of a death-sentence, and the cruelty of a
sentence of exile. This is how I looked at it that morning -- and even
now I seem to see an undeniable vestige of truth in that exaggerated
view of a common occurrence. You may imagine how strongly I felt
this at the time. Perhaps it is for that reason that I could not bring
myself to admit the finality. The thing was always with me, I was
always eager to take opinion on it, as though it had not been practi-
cally settled: individual opinion -- international opinion -- by Jove!
That Frenchman's, for instance. His own country's pronouncement
was uttered in the passionless and definite phraseology a machine
would use, if machines could speak. The head of the magistrate was
half hidden by the paper, his brow was like alabaster.
  'There were several questions before the court. The first as to
whether the ship was in every respect fit and seaworthy for the
voyage. The court found she was not. The next point, I remember,
was, whether up to the time of the accident the ship had been
navigated with proper and seamanlike care. They said Yes to that,
goodness knows why, and then they declared that there was no
evidence to show the exact cause of the accident. A floating derelict
probably. I myself remember that a Norwegian barque bound out
with a cargo of pitch-pine had been given up as missing about that
time, and it was just the sort of craft that would capsize in a squall
and float bottom up for months -- a kind of maritime ghoul on the
prowl to kill ships in the dark. Such wandering corpses are common
enough in the North Atlantic, which is haunted by all the terrors
of the sea, -- fogs, icebergs, dead ships bent upon mischief, and long
sinister gales that fasten upon one like a vampire till all the strength
and the spirit and even hope are gone, and one feels like the empty
shell of a man. But there -- in those seas -- the incident was rare
enough to resemble a special arrangement of a malevolent provi-
dence, which, unless it had for its object the killing of a donkeyman
and the bringing of worse than death upon Jim, appeared an utterly
aimless piece of devilry. This view occurring to me took off my
attention. For a time I was aware of the magistrate's voice as a sound
merely; but in a moment it shaped itself into distinct words . . .
"in utter disregard of their plain duty," it said. The next sentence
escaped me somehow, and then . . . "abandoning in the moment
of danger the lives and property confided to their charge" . . . went
on the voice evenly, and stopped. A pair of eyes under the white
forehead shot darkly a glance above the edge of the paper. I looked
for Jim hurriedly, as though I had expected him to disappear. He
was very still -- but he was there. He sat pink and fair and extremely
attentive. "Therefore,..." began the voice emphatically. He
stared with parted lips, hanging upon the words of the man behind
the desk. These came out into the stillness wafted on the wind made
by the punkahs, and I, watching for their effect upon him, caught
only the fragments of official language.... "The Court...
Gustav So-and-so . . . master . . . native of Germany . . . James So-
and-so. . . mate . . . certificates cancelled." A silence fell. The
magistrate had dropped the paper, and, leaning sideways on the
arm of his chair, began to talk with Brierly easily. People started to
move out; others were pushing in, and I also made for the door.
Outside I stood still, and when Jim passed me on his way to the
gate, I caught at his arm and detained him. The look he gave dis-
composed me, as though I had been responsible for his state he
looked at me as if I had been the embodied evil of life. "It's all
over," I stammered. "Yes," he said thickly. "And now let no
man . . ." He jerked his arm out of my grasp. I watched his back
as he went away. It was a long street, and he remained in sight for
some time. He walked rather slow, and straddling his legs a little,
as if he had found it diffficult to keep a straight line. Just before I
lost him I fancied he staggered a bit.
  ' "Man overboard," said a deep voice behind me. Turning
round, I saw a fellow I knew slightly, a West Australian; Chester
was his name. He, too, had been looking after Jim. He was a man
with an immense girth of chest, a rugged, clean-shaved face of
mahogany colour, and two blunt tufts of iron-grey, thick, wiry hairs
on his upper lip. He had been pearler, wrecker, trader, whaler too,
I believe; in his own words -- anything and everything a man may
be at sea, but a pirate. The Pacific, north and south, was his proper
hunting-ground; but he had wandered so far afield looking for a
cheap steamer to buy. Lately he had discovered -- so he said -- a
guano island somewhere, but its approaches were dangerous, and
the anchorage, such as it was, could not be considered safe, to say
the least of it. "As good as a gold-mine," he would exclaim. "Right
bang in the middle of the Walpole Reefs, and if it's true enough
that you can get no holding-ground anywhere in less than forty
fathom, then what of that? There are the hurricanes, too. But it's
a first-rate thing. As good as a gold-mine -- better! Yet there's not
a fool of them that will see it. I can't get a skipper or a shipowner
to go near the place. So I made up my mind to cart the blessed stuff
myself." . . . This was what he required a steamer for, and I knew
he was just then negotiating enthusiastically with a Parsee firm for
an old, brig-rigged, sea-anachronism of ninety horse-power. We
had met and spoken together several times. He looked knowingly
after Jim. "Takes it to heart?" he asked scornfully. "Very much,"
I said. "Then he's no good," he opined. "What's all the to-do
about? A bit of ass's skin. That never yet made a man. You must
see things exactly as they are -- if you don't, you may just as well
give in at once. You will never do anything in this world. Look at
me. I made it a practice never to take anything to heart." "Yes," I
said, "you see things as they are." "I wish I could see my partner
coming along, that's what I wish to see," he said. "Know my part-
ner? Old Robinson. Yes; the Robinson. Don't you know? The
notorious Robinson. The man who smuggled more opium and
bagged more seals in his time than any loose Johnny now alive.
They say he used to board the sealing-schooners up Alaska way
when the fog was so thick that the Lord God, He alone, could tell
one man from another. Holy-Terror Robinson. That's the man. He
is with me in that guano thing. The best chance he ever came across
in his life." He put his lips to my ear. "Cannibal? -- well, they used
to give him the name years and years ago. You remember the story?
A shipwreck on the west side of Stewart Island; that's right; seven
of them got ashore, and it seems they did not get on very well
together. Some men are too cantankerous for anything -- don't know
how to make the best of a bad job -- don't see things as they are --
as they are, my boy! And then what's the consequence? Obvious!
Trouble, trouble; as likely as not a knock on the head; and serve
'em right too. That sort is the most useful when it's dead. The story
goes that a boat of Her Majesty's ship Wolverine found him kneeling
on the kelp, naked as the day he was born, and chanting some
psalm-tune or other; light snow was falling at the time. He waited
till the boat was an oar's length from the shore, and then up and
away. They chased him for an hour up and down the boulders, till
a marihe flung a stone that took him behind the ear providendally
and knocked him senseless. Alone? Of course. But that's like that
tale of sealing-schooners; the Lord God knows the right and the
wrong of that story. The cutter did not investigate much. They
wrapped him in a boat-cloak and took him off as quick as they
could, with a dark night coming on, the weather threatening, and
the ship firing recall guns every five minutes. Three weeks after-
wards he was as well as ever. He didn't allow any fuss that was made
on shore to upset him; he just shut his lips tight, and let people
screech. It was bad enough to have lost his ship, and all he was
worth besides, without paying attention to the hard names they
called him. That's the man for me." He lifted his arm for a signal
to some one down the street. "He's got a little money, so I had to
let him into my thing. Had to! It would have been sinful to throw
away such a find, and I was cleaned out myself. It cut me to the
quick, but I could see the matter just as it was, and if I must share --
thinks I -- with any man, then give me Robinson. I left him at
breakfast in the hotel to come to court, because I've an idea....
Ah! Good morning, Captain Robinson.... Friend of mine, Cap-
tain Robinson."
  'An emaciated patriarch in a suit of white drill, a solah topi with
a green-lined rim on a head trembling with age, joined us after
crossing the street in a trotting shuffle, and stood propped with
both hands on the handle of an umbrella. A white beard with amber
streaks hung lumpily down to his waist. He blinked his creased
eyelids at me in a bewildered way. "How do you do? how do you
do?" he piped amiably, and tottered. "A little deaf," said Chester
aside. "Did you drag him over six thousand miles to get a cheap
steamer?" I asked. "I would have taken him twice round the world
as soon as look at him," said Chester with immense energy. "The
steamer will be the making of us, my lad. Is it my fault that every
skipper and shipowner in the whole of blessed Australasia turns out
a blamed fool? Once I talked for three hours to a man in Auckland.
'Send a ship,' I said, 'send a ship. I'll give you half of the first cargo
for yourself, free gratis for nothing -- just to make a good start.'
Says he, 'I wouldn't do it if there was no other place on earth to
send a ship to.' Perfect ass, of course. Rocks, currents, no anchor-
age, sheer cliff to lay to, no insurance company would take the risk,
didn't see how he could get loaded under three years. Ass! I nearly
went on my knees to him. 'But look at the thing as it is,' says I.
'Damn rocks and hurricanes. Look at it as it is. There's guano there
Queensland sugar-planters would fight for -- fight for on the quay,
I tell you.' . . . What can you do with a fool? . . . 'That's one of
your little jokes, Chester,' he says.... Joke! I could have wept.
Ask Captain Robinson here.... And there was another shipown-
ing fellow -- a fat chap in a white waistcoat in Wellington, who
seemed to think I was up to some swindle or other. 'I don't know
what sort of fool you're looking for,' he says, 'but I am busy just
now. Good morning.' I longed to take him in my two hands and
smash him through the window of his own office. But I didn't. I
was as mild as a curate. 'Think of it,' says I. 'Do think it over. I'll
call to-morrow.' He grunted something about being 'out all day.'
On the stairs I felt ready to beat my head against the wall from
vexation. Captain Robinson here can tell you. It was awful to think
of all that lovely stuff lying waste under the sun -- stuff that would
send the sugar-cane shooting sky-high. The making of Queensland!
The making of Queensland! And in Brisbane, where I went to have
a last try, they gave me the name of a lunatic. Idiots! The only
sensible man I came across was the cabman who drove me about.
A broken-down swell he was, I fancy. Hey! Captain Robinson? You
remember I told you about my cabby in Brisbane -- don't you? The
chap had a wonderful eye for things. He saw it all in a jiffy. It was
a real pleasure to talk with him. One evening after a devil of a day
amongst shipowners I felt so bad that, says I, 'I must get drunk.
Come along; I must get drunk, or I'll go mad. ' 'I am your man,' he
says; 'go ahead.' I don't know what I would have done without him.
Hey! Captain Robinson."
  'He poked the ribs of his partner. "He! he! he!" laughed the
Ancient, looked aimlessly down the street, then peered at me doubt-
fully with sad, dim pupils.... "He! he! he!" ... He leaned heav-
ier on the umbrella, and dropped his gaze on the ground. I needn't
tell you I had tried to get away several times, but Chester had foiled
every attempt by simply catching hold of my coat. "One minute.
I've a notion." "What's your infernal notion?" I exploded at last.
"If you think I am going in with you . . ." "No, no, my boy. Too
late, if you wanted ever so much. We've got a steamer." "You've
got the ghost of a steamer," I said. "Good enough for a start --
there's no superior nonsense about us. Is there, Captain Robinson?"
"No! no! no!" croaked the old man without lifting his eyes, and the
senile tremble of his head became almost fierce with determination.
"I understand you know that young chap," said Chester, with a
nod at the street from which Jim had disappeared long ago. "He's
been having grub with you in the Malabar last night -- so I was
told."
  'I said that was true, and after remarking that he too liked to live
well and in style, only that, for the present, he had to be saving of
every penny -- "none too many for the business! Isn't that so, Cap-
tain Robinson?" -- he squared his shoulders and stroked his dumpy
moustache, while the notorious Robinson, coughing at his side,
clung more than ever to the handle of the umbrella, and seemed
ready to subside passively into a heap of old bones. "You see, the
old chap has all the money," whispered Chester confidendally.
"I've been cleaned out trying to engineer the dratted thing. But
wait a bit, wait a bit. The good time is coming." . . . He seemed
suddenly astonished at the signs of impatience I gave. "Oh,
crakee!" he cried; "I am telling you of the biggest thing that ever
was, and you . . ." "I have an appointment," I pleaded mildly.
"What of that?" he asked with genuine surprise; "let it wait."
"That's exactly what I am doing now," I remarked; "hadn't you
better tell me what it is you want?" "Buy twenty hotels like that,"
he growled to himself; "and every joker boarding in them too --
twenty times over." He lifted his head smartly "I want that young
chap." "I don't understand," I said. "He's no good, is he?" said
Chester crisply. "I know nothing about it," I protested. "Why, you
told me yourself he was taking it to heart," argued Chester. "Well,
in my opinion a chap who . . . Anyhow, he can't be much good;
but then you see I am on the look-out for somebody, and I've just
got a thing that will suit him. I'll give him a job on my island." He
nodded significantly. "I'm going to dump forty coolies there -- if
I've to steal 'em. Somebody must work the stuff. Oh! I mean to act
square: wooden shed, corrugated-iron roof -- I know a man in
Hobart who will take my bill at six months for the materials. I do.
Honour bright. Then there's the water-supply. I'll have to fly round
and get somebody to trust me for half-a-dozen second-hand iron
tanks. Catch rain-water, hey? Let him take charge. Make him
supreme boss over the coolies. Good idea, isn't it? What do you
say?" "There are whole years when not a drop of rain falls on
Walpole," I said, too amazed to laugh. He bit his lip and seemed
bothered. "Oh, well, I wiU fix up something for them -- or land a
supply. Hang it all! That's not the question."
  'I said nothing. I had a rapid vision of Jim perched on a shadow-
less rock, up to his knees in guano, with the screams of sea-birds
in his ears, the incandescent ball of the sun above his head; the
empty sky and the empty ocean all a-quiver, simmering together in
the heat as far as the eye could reach. "I wouldn't advise my worst
enemy . . ." I began. "What's the matter with you?" cried Chester;
"I mean to give him a good screw -- that is, as soon as the thing is
set going, of course. It's as easy as falling off a log. Simply nothing
to do; two six-shooters in his belt . . . Surely he wouldn't be afraid
of anyt}ung forty coolies could do -- with two six-shooters and he
the only armed man too! It's much better than it looks. I want you
to help me to talk him over." "No!" I shouted. Old Robinson lifted
his bleared eyes dismally for a moment, Chester looked at me with
infinite contempt. "So you wouldn't advise him?" he uttered
slowly. "Certainly not," I answered, as indignant as though he had
requested me to help murder somebody; "moreover, I am sure he
wouldn't. He is badly cut up, but he isn't mad as far as I know."
"He is no earthly good for anything," Chester mused aloud. "He
would just have done for me. If you only could see a thing as it is,
you would see it's the very thing for him. And besides . . . Why!
it's the most splendid, sure chance . . ." He got angry suddenly.
"I must have a man. There! . . ." He stamped his foot and smiled
unpleasantly. "Anyhow, I could guarantee the island wouldn't sink
under him -- and I believe he is a bit particular on that point."
"Good morning," I said curtly. He looked at me as though I had
been an incomprehensible fool.... "Must be moving, Captain
Robinson," he yelled suddenly into the old man's ear. "These
Parsee Johnnies are waiting for us to clinch the bargain." He took
his partner under the arm with a firm grip, swung him round, and,
unexpectedly, leered at me over his shoulder. "I was trying to do
him a kindness," he asserted, with an air and tone that made my
blood boil. "Thank you for nothing -- in his name," I rejoined.
"Oh! you are devilish smart," he sneered; "but you are like the rest
of them. Too much in the clouds. See what you will do with him."
"I don't know that I want to do anything with him." "Don't you?"
he spluttered; his grey moustache bristled with anger, and by his
side the notorious Robinson, propped on the umbrella, stood with
his back to me, as patient and still as a worn-out cab-horse. "I
haven't found a guano island," I said. "It's my belief you wouldn't
know one if you were led right up to it by the hand," he riposted
quickly; "and in this world you've got to see a thing first, before
you can make use of it. Got to see it through and through at that,
neither more nor less." "And get others to see it too," I insinuated,
with a glance at the bowed back by his side. Chester snorted at me.
"His eyes are right enough -- don't you worry. He ain't a puppy."
"Oh dear, no!" I said. "Come along, Captain Robinson," he
shouted, with a sort of bullying deference under the rim of the old
man's hat; the Holy Terror gave a submissive little jump. The ghost
of a steamer was waiting for them, Fortune on that fair isle! They
made a curious pair of Argonauts. Chester strode on leisurely, well
set up, portly, and of conquering mien; the other, long, wasted,
drooping, and hooked to his arm, shuffled his withered shanks with
desperate haste.'

                      CHAPTER 15

  'I did not start in search of Jim at once, only because I had really
an appointment which I could not neglect. Then, as ill-luck would
have it, in my agent's office I was fastened upon by a fellow fresh
from Madagascar with a little scheme for a wonderful piece of busi-
ness. It had something to do with cattle and cartridges and a Prince
Ravonalo something; but the pivot of the whole affair was the stu-
pidity of some admiral -- Admiral Pierre, I think. Everything turned
on that, and the chap couldn't find words strong enough to express
his confidence. He had globular eyes starting out of his head with
a fishy glitter, bumps on his forehead, and wore his long hair
brushed back without a parting. He had a favourite phrase which
he kept on repeating triumphantly, "The minimum of risk with the
maximum of profit is my motto. What?" He made my head ache,
spoiled my tiffin, but got his own out of me all right; and as soon
as I had shaken him off, I made straight for the water-side. I caught
sight of Jim leaning over the parapet of the quay. Three native
boatmen quarrelling over five annas were making an awful row at
his elbow. He didn't hear me come up, but spun round as if the
slight contact of my finger had released a catch. "I was looking,"
he stammered. I don't remember what I said, not much anyhow,
but he made no difficulty in following me to the hotel.
  'He followed me as manageable as a little child, with an obedient
air, with no sort of manifestation, rather as though he had been
waiting for me there to come along and carry him off. I need not
have been so surprised as I was at his tractability. On all the round
earth, which to some seems so big and that others affect to consider
as rather smaller than a mustard-seed, he had no place where he
could -- what shall I say? -- where he could withdraw. That's it!
Withdraw -- be alone with his loneliness. He walked by my side
very calm, glancing here and there, and once turned his head to
look after a Sidiboy fireman in a cutaway coat and yellowish
trousers, whose black face had silky gleams like a lump of anthracite
coal. I doubt, however, whether he saw anything, or even remained
all the time aware of my companionship, because if I had not edged
him to the left here, or pulled him to the right there, I believe he
would have gone straight before him in any direction till stopped
by a wall or some other obstacle. I steered him into my bedroom,
and sat down at once to write letters. This was the only place in the
world (unless, perhaps, the Walpole Reef -- but that was not so
handy) where he could have it out with himself without being both-
ered by the rest of the universe. The damned thing -- as he had
expressed it -- had not made him invisible, but I behaved exactly as
though he were. No sooner in my chair I bent over my writing-desk
like a medieval scribe, and, but for the movement of the hand
holding the pen, remained anxiously quiet. I can't say I was fright-
ened; but I certainly kept as still as if there had been something
dangerous in the room, that at the first hint of a movement on my
part would be provoked to pounce upon me. There was not much
in the room -- you know how these bedrooms are -- a sort of four-
poster bedstead under a mosquito-net, two or three chairs, the table
I was writing at, a bare floor. A glass door opened on an upstairs
verandah, and he stood with his face to it, having a hard time
with all possible privacy. Dusk fell; I lit a candle with the greatest
economy of movement and as much prudence as though it were an
illegal proceeding. There is no doubt that he had a very hard time
of it, and so had I, even to the point, I must own, of wishing him
to the devil, or on Walpole Reef at least. It occurred to me once or
twice that, after all, Chester was, perhaps, the man to deal effec-
tively with such a disaster. That strange idealist had found a practi-
cal use for it at once -- unerringly, as it were. It was enough to make
one suspect that, maybe, he really could see the true aspect of things
that appeared mysterious or utterly hopeless to less imaginative
persons. I wrote and wrote; I liquidated all the arrears of my corre-
spondence, and then went on writing to people who had no reason
whatever to expect from me a gossipy letter about nothing at all. At
times I stole a sidelong glance. He was rooted to the spot, but
convulsive shudders ran down his back; his shoulders would heave
suddenly. He was fighting, he was fighting -- mostly for his breath,
as it seemed. The massive shadows, cast all one way from the
straight flame of the candle, seemed possessed of gloomy conscious-
ness; the immobility of the furniture had to my furtive eye an air
of attention. I was becoming fanciful in the midst of my industrious
scribbling; and though, when the scratching of my pen stopped for
a moment, there was complete silence and stillness in the room, I
suffered from that profound disturbance and confusion of thought
which is caused by a violent and menacing uproar -- of a heavy gale
at sea, for instance. Some of you may know what I mean: that
mingled anxiety, distress, and irritation with a sort of craven feeling
creeping in -- not pleasant to acknowledge, but which gives a quite
special merit to one's endurance. I don't claim any merit for stand-
ing the stress of Jim's emotions; I could take refuge in the letters;
I could have written to strangers if necessary. Suddenly, as I was
taking up a fresh sheet of notepaper, I heard a low sound, the first
sound that, since we had been shut up together, had come to my
ears in the dim stillness of the room. I remained with my head
down, with my hand arrested. Those who have kept vigil by a
sick-bed have heard such faint sounds in the stillness of the night
watches, sounds wrung from a racked body, from a weary soul. He
pushed the glass door with such force that all the panes rang: he
stepped out, and I held my breath, straining my ears without know-
ing what else I expected to hear. He was really taking too much
to heart an empty formality which to Chester's rigorous criticism
seemed unworthy the notice of a man who could see things as they
were. An empty formality; a piece of parchment. Well, well. As to
an inaccessible guano deposit, that was another story altogether.
One could intelligibly break one's heart over that. A feeble burst of
many voices mingled with the tinkle of silver and glass floated up
from the dining-room below; through the open door the outer edge
of the light from my candle fell on his back faintly; beyond all was
black; he stood on the brink of a vast obscurity, like a lonely figure
by the shore of a sombre and hopeless ocean. There was the Walpole
Reef in it -- to be sure -- a speck in the dark void, a straw for the
drowning man. My compassion for him took the shape of the
thought that I wouldn't have liked his people to see him at that
moment. I found it trying myself. His back was no longer shaken
by his gasps; he stood straight as an arrow, faintly visible and still;
and the meaning of this stillness sank to the bottom of my soul like
lead into the water, and made it so heavy that for a second I wished
heartily that the only course left open for me was to pay for his
funeral. Even the law had done with him. To bury him would
have been such an easy kindness! It would have been so much in
accordance with the wisdom of life, which consists in putting out
of sight all the reminders of our folly, of our weakness, of our
mortality; all that makes against our efficiency -- the memory of our
failures, the hints of our undying fears, the bodies of our dead
friends. Perhaps he did take it too much to heart. And if so then --
Chester's offer.... At this point I took up a fresh sheet and began
to write resolutely. There was nothing but myself between him and
the dark ocean. I had a sense of responsibility. If I spoke, would
that motionless and suffering youth leap into the obscurity -- clutch
at the straw? I found out how difficult it may be sometimes to make
a sound. There is a weird power in a spoken word. And why the
devil not? I was asking myself persistently while I drove on with
my writing. All at once, on the blank page, under the very point of
the pen, the two figures of Chester and his antique partner, very
distinct and complete, would dodge into view with stride and ges-
tures, as if reproduced in the field of some optical toy. I would watch
them for a while. No! They were too phantasmal and extravagant to
enter into any one's fate. And a word carries far -- very far -- deals
destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space. I
said nothing; and he, out there with his back to the light, as if
bound and gagged by all the invisible foes of man, made no stir and
made no sound.'

                     CHAPTER 16

  'The time was coming when I should see him loved, trusted,
admired, with a legend of strength and prowess forming round his
name as though he had been the stuff of a hero. It's true -- I assure
you; as true as I'm sitting here talking about him in vain. He, on
his side, had that faculty of beholding at a hint the face of his desire
and the shape of his dream, without which the earth would know
no lover and no adventurer. He captured much honour and an
Arcadian happiness (I won't say anything about innocence) in the
bush, and it was as good to him as the honour and the Arcadian
happiness of the streets to another man. Felicity, felicity -- how shall
I say it? -- is quaffed out of a golden cup in every latitude: the flavour
is with you -- with you alone, and you can make it as intoxicating
as you please. He was of the sort that would drink deep, as you may
guess from what went before. I found him, if not exactly intoxi-
cated, then at least flushed with the elixir at his lips. He had not
obtained it at once. There had been, as you know, a period of
probation amongst infernal ship-chandlers, during which he had
suffered and I had worried about -- about -- my trust -- you may call
it. I don't know that I am completely reassured now, after beholding
him in all his brilliance. That was my last view of him -- in a strong
light, dominating, and yet in complete accord with his surround-
ings -- with the life of the forests and with the life of men. I own
that I was impressed, but I must admit to myself that after all this
is not the lasting impression. He was protected by his isolation,
alone of his own superior kind, in close touch with Nature, that
keeps faith on such easy terms with her lovers. But I cannot fix
before my eye the image of his safety. I shall always remember him
as seen through the open door of my room, taking, perhaps, too
much to heart the mere consequences of his failure. I am pleased,
of course, that some good -- and even some splendour -- came out
of my endeavours; but at times it seems to me it would have been
better for my peace of mind if I had not stood between him and
Chester's confoundedly generous offer. I wonder what his exuber-
ant imagination would have made of Walpole islet -- that most hope-
lessly forsaken crumb of dry land on the face of the waters. It is not
likely I would ever have heard, for I must tell you that Chester,
after calling at some Australian port to patch up his brig-rigged sea-
anachronism, steamed out into the Pacific with a crew of twenty-
two hands all told, and the only news having a possible bearing
upon the mystery of his fate was the news of a hurricane which is
supposed to have swept in its course over the Walpole shoals, a
month or so afterwards. Not a vestige of the Argonauts ever turned
up; not a sound came out of the waste. Finis! The Pacific is the
most discreet of live, hot-tempered oceans: the chilly Antarctic can
keep a secret too, but more in the manner of a grave.
  'And there is a sense of blessed finality in such discretion, which
is what we all more or less sincerely are ready to admit -- for what
else is it that makes the idea of death supportable? End! Finis!
the potent word that exorcises from the house of life the haunting
shadow of fate. This is what -- notwithstanding the testimony of my
eyes and his own earnest assurances -- I miss when I look back upon
Jim's success. While there's life there is hope, truly; but there is
fear too. I don't mean to say that I regret my action, nor will I
pretend that I can't sleep o' nights in consequence; still, the idea
obtrudes itself that he made so much of his disgrace while it is the
guilt alone that matters. He was not -- if I may say so -- clear to me.
He was not clear. And there is a suspicion he was not clear to himself
either. There were his fine sensibilities, his fine feelings, his fine
longings -- a sort of sublimated, idealised selfishness. He was -- if
you allow me to say so -- very fine; very fine -- and very unfortunate.
A little coarser nature would not have borne the strain; it would
have had to come to terms with itself -- with a sigh, with a grunt,
or even with a guffaw; a still coarser one would have remained
invulnerably ignorant and completely uninteresting.
  'But he was too interesting or too unfortunate to be thrown to
the dogs, or even to Chester. I felt this while I sat with my face over
the paper and he fought and gasped, struggling for his breath in
that terribly stealthy way, in my room; I felt it when he rushed out
on the verandah as if to fling himself over -- and didn't; I felt it more
and more all the time he remained outside, faintly lighted on the
background of night, as if standing on the shore of a sombre and
hopeless sea.
  'An abrupt heavy rumble made me lift my head. The noise
seemed to roll away, and suddenly a searching and violent glare fell
on the blind face of the night. The sustained and dazzling flickers
seemed to last for an unconscionable time. The growl of the thunder
increased steadily while I looked at him, distinct and black, planted
solidly upon the shores of a sea of light. At the moment of greatest
brilliance the darkness leaped back with a culminating crash, and
he vanished before my dazzled eyes as utterly as though he had been
blown to atoms. A blustering sigh passed; furious hands seemed to
tear at the shrubs, shake the tops of the trees below, slam doors,
break window-panes, all along the front of the building. He stepped
in, closing the door behind him, and found me bending over the
table: my sudden anxiety as to what he would say was very great,
and akin to a fright. "May I have a cigarette?" he asked. I gave a
push to the box without raising my head. "I want -- want -- tobacco,"
he muttered. I became exuemely buoyant. "Just a moment." I
grunted pleasantly. He took a few steps here and there. "That's
over," I heard him say. A single distant clap of thunder came from
the sea like a gun of distress. "The monsoon breaks up early this
year," he remarked conversationally, somewhere behind me. This
encouraged me to turn round, which I did as soon as I had finished
addressing the last envelope. He was smoking greedily in the middle
of the room, and though he heard the stir I made, he remained with
his back to me for a time.
  ' "Come -- I carried it off pretty well," he said, wheeling sud-
denly. "Something's paid off -- not much. I wonder what's to
come." His face did not show any emotion, only it appeared a little
darkened and swollen, as though he had been holding his breath.
He smiled reluctantly as it were, and went on while I gazed up at
him mutely.... "Thank you, though -- your room -- jolly con-
venient -- for a chap -- badly hipped." . . . The rain pattered and
swished in the garden; a water-pipe (it must have had a hole in it)
performed just outside the window a parody of blubbering woe with
funny sobs and gurgling lamentations, interrupted by jerky spasms
of silence.... "A bit of shelter," he mumbled and ceased.
  'A flash of faded lightning darted in through the black framework
of the windows and ebbed out without any noise. I was thinking
how I had best approach him (I did not want to be flung off again)
when he gave a little laugh. "No better than a vagabond now" . . .
the end of the cigarette smouldered between his fingers . . . "with-
out a single -- single," he pronounced slowly; "and yet . . ." He
paused; the rain fell with redoubled violence. "Some day one's
bound to come upon some sort of chance to get it all back again.
Must!" he whispered distinctly, glaring at my boots.
  'I did not even know what it was he wished so much to regain,
what it was he had so terribly missed. It might have been so much
that it was impossible to say. A piece of ass's skin, according to
Chester.... He looked up at me inquisitively. "Perhaps. If life's
long enough," I muttered through my teeth with unreasonable ani-
mosity. "Don't reckon too much on it."
  ' "Jove! I feel as if nothing could ever touch me," he said in a
tone of sombre conviction. "If this business couldn't knock me
over, then there's no fear of there being not enough time to -- climb
out, and . . ." He looked upwards.
  'It struck me that it is from such as he that the great army of
waifs and strays is recruited, the army that marches down, down
into all the gutters of the earth. As soon as he left my room, that
"bit of shelter," he would take his place in the ranks, and begin the
journey towards the bottomless pit. I at least had no illusions; but
it was I, too, who a moment ago had been so sure of the power of
words, and now was afraid to speak, in the same way one dares not
move for fear of losing a slippery hold. It is when we try to grapple
with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incompre-
hensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the
sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness
were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of
flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the out-
stretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsol-
able, and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.
It was the fear of losing him that kept me silent, for it was borne
upon me suddenly and with unaccountable force that should I let
him slip away into the darkness I would never forgive myself.
  ' "Well. Thanks -- once more. You've been -- er -- uncommonly --
really there's no word to . . . Uncommonly! I don't know why, I
am sure. I am afraid I don't feel as grateful as I would if the whole
thing hadn't been so brutally sprung on me. Because at bottom . . .
you, yourself . . ." He stuttered.
  ' "Possibly," I struck in. He frowned.
  ' "All the same, one is responsible." He watched me like a hawk.
  ' "And that's true, too," I said.
  ' "Well. I've gone with it to the end, and I don't intend to let any
man cast it in my teeth without -- without -- resenting it." He
clenched his fist.
  ' "There's yourself," I said with a smile -- mirthless enough, God
knows -- but he looked at me menacingly. "That's my business,"
he said. An air of indomitable resolution came and went upon his
face like a vain and passing shadow. Next moment he looked a dear
good boy in trouble, as before. He flung away the cigarette. "Good-
bye," he said, with the sudden haste of a man who had lingered too
long in view of a pressing bit of work waiting for him; and then for
a second or so he made not the slightest movement. The downpour
fell with the heavy uninterrupted rush of a sweeping flood, with a
sound of unchecked overwhelming fury that called to one's mind
the images of collapsing bridges, of uprooted trees, of undermined
mountains. No man could breast the colossal and headlong stream
that seemed to break and swirl against the dim stillness in which
we were precariously sheltered as if on an island. The perforated
pipe gurgled, choked, spat, and splashed in odious ridicule of a
swimmer fighting for his life. "It is raining," I remonstrated, "and
I . . ." "Rain or shine," he began brusquely, checked himself, and
walked to the window. "Perfect deluge," he muttered after a while:
he leaned his forehead on the glass. "It's dark, too."
  ' "Yes, it is very dark," I said.
  'He pivoted on his heels, crossed the room, and had actually
opened the door leading into the corridor before I leaped up from
my chair. "Wait," I cried, "I want you to . . ." "I can't dine with
you again to-night," he flung at me, with one leg out of the room
already. "I haven't the slightest intention of asking you," I shouted.
At this he drew back his foot, but remained mistrustfully in the
very doorway. I lost no time in entreating him earnestly not to be
absurd; to come in and shut the door.'

                     CHAPTER 17

  'He came in at last; but I believe it was mostly the rain that did
it; it was falling just then with a devastating violence which quieted
down gradually while we talked. His manner was very sober and
set; his bearing was that of a naturally taciturn man possessed by
an idea. My talk was of the material aspect of his position; it had
the sole aim of saving him from the degradation, ruin, and despair
that out there close so swiftly upon a friendless, homeless man; I
pleaded with him to accept my help; I argued reasonably: and every
time I looked up at that absorbed smooth face, so grave and youth-
ful, I had a disturbing sense of being no help but rather an obstacle
to some mysterious, inexplicable, impalpable striving of his
wounded spirit.
  ' "I suppose you intend to eat and drink and to sleep under
shelter in the usual way," I remember saying with irritation. "You
say you won't touch the money that is due to you." . . . He came
as near as his sort can to making a gesture of horror. (There were
three weeks and five days' pay owing him as mate of the Patna.)
"Well, that's too little to matter anyhow; but what will you do to-
morrow? Where will you turn? You must live . . ." "That isn't the
thing," was the comment that escaped him under his breath. I
ignored it, and went on combating what I assumed to be the scruples
of an exaggerated delicacy. "On every conceivable ground," I con-
cluded, "you must let me help you." "You can't," he said very
simply and gently, and holding fast to some deep idea which I could
detect shimmering like a pool of water in the dark, but which I
despaired of ever approaching near enough to fathom. I surveyed
his well-proportioned bulk. "At any rate," I said, "I am able to
help what I can see of you. I don't pretend to do more." He shook
his head sceptically without looking at me. I got very warm. "But
I can," I insisted. "I can do even more. I am doing more. I am
trusting you . . ." "The money . . ." he began. "Upon my word
you deserve being told to go to the devil," I cried, forcing the note
of indignation. He was startled, smiled, and I pressed my attack
home. "It isn't a question of money at all. You are too superficial,"
I said (and at the same time I was thinking to myself: Well, here
goes! And perhaps he is, after all). "Look at the letter I want you
to take. I am writing to a man of whom I've never asked a favour,
and I am writing about you in terms that one only ventures to use
when speaking of an intimate friend. I make myself unreservedly
responsible for you. That's what I am doing. And really if you will
only reflect a little what that means . . ."
  'He lifted his head. The rain had passed away; only the water-
pipe went on shedding tears with an absurd drip, drip outside the
window. It was very quiet in the room, whose shadows huddled
together in corners, away from the still flame of the candle flaring
upright in the shape of a dagger; his face after a while seemed
suffused by a reflection of a soft light as if the dawn had broken
already.
  ' "Jove!" he gasped out. "It is noble of you!"
  'Had he suddenly put out his tongue at me in derision, I could
not have felt more humiliated. I thought to myself -- Serve me right
for a sneaking humbug.... His eyes shone straight into my face,
but I perceived it was not a mocking brightness. All at once he
sprang into jerky agitation, like one of those flat wooden figures
that are worked by a string. His arms went up, then came down
with a slap. He became another man altogether. "And I had never
seen," he shouted; then suddenly bit his lip and frowned. "What a
bally ass I've been," he said very slow in an awed tone.... "You
are a brick! " he cried next in a muffled voice. He snatched my hand
as though he had just then seen it for the first time, and dropped it
at once. "Why! this is what I -- you -- I . . ." he stammered, and
then with a return of his old stolid, I may say mulish, manner he
began heavily, "I would be a brute now if I . . ." and then his voice
seemed to break. "That's all right," I said. I was almost alarmed
by this display of feeling, through which pierced a strange elation.
I had pulled the string accidentally, as it were; I did not fully under-
stand the working of the toy. "I must go now," he said. "Jove! You
have helped me. Can't sit still. The very thing . . ." He looked at
me with puzzled admiration. "The very thing . . ."
  'Of course it was the thing. It was ten to one that I had saved him
from starvation -- of that peculiar sort that is almost invariably
associated with drink. This was all. I had not a single illusion on
that score, but looking at him, I allowed myself to wonder at the
nature of the one he had, within the last three minutes, so evidently
taken into his bosom. I had forced into his hand the means to carry
on decently the serious business of life, to get food, drink, and
shelter of the customary kind, while his wounded spirit, like a bird
with a broken wing, might hop and flutter into some hole, to die
quietly of inanition there. This is what I had thrust upon him: a
definitely small thing; and -- behold! -- by the manner of its reception
it loomed in the dim light of the candle like a big, indistinct, perhaps
a dangerous shadow. "You don't mind me not saying anything
appropriate," he burst out. "There isn't anything one could say.
Last night already you had done me no end of good. Listening to
me -- you know. I give you my word I've thought more than once
the top of my head would fly off. . ." He darted -- positively
darted -- here and there, rammed his hands into his pockets, jerked
them out again, flung his cap on his head. I had no idea it was in
him to be so airily brisk. I thought of a dry leaf imprisoned in an
eddy of wind, while a mysterious apprehension, a load of indefinite
doubt, weighed me down in my chair. He stood stock-still, as if
struck motionless by a discovery. "You have given me confidence,"
he declared soberly. "Oh! for God's sake, my dear fellow -- don't!"
I entreated, as though he had hurt me. "All right. I'll shut up
now and henceforth. Can't prevent me thinking though.... Never
mind! . . . I'll show yet . . ." He went to the door in a hurry,
paused with his head down, and came back, stepping deliberately.
"I always thought that if a fellow could begin with a clean slate . . .
And now you . . . in a measure . . . yes . . . clean slate." I waved
my hand, and he marched out without looking back; the sound
of his footfalls died out gradually behind the closed door -- the
unhesitating tread of a man walking in broad daylight.
  'But as to me, left alone with the solitary candle, I remained
strangely unenlightened. I was no longer young enough to behold
at every turn the magnificence that besets our insignificant footsteps
in good and in evil. I smiled to think that, after all, it was yet he,
of us two, who had the light. And I felt sad. A clean slate, did he
say? As if the initial word of each our destiny were not graven in
imperishable characters upon the face of a rock.'

                       CHAPTER 18

  'Six months afterwards my friend (he was a cynical, more than
middle-aged bachelor, with a reputation for eccentricity, and owned
a rice-mill) wrote to me, and judging, from the warmth of my
recommendation, that I would like to hear, enlarged a little upon
Jim's perfections. These were apparently of a quiet and effective
sort. "Not having been able so far to find more in my heart than a
resigned toleration for any individual of my kind, I have lived till
now alone in a house that even in this steaming climate could be
considered as too big for one man. I have had him to live with me
for some time past. It seems I haven't made a mistake." It seemed
to me on reading this letter that my friend had found in his heart
more than tolerance for Jim -- that there were the beginnings of
active liking. Of course he stated his grounds in a characteristic
way. For one thing, Jim kept his freshness in the climate. Had he
been a girl -- my friend wrote -- one could have said he was bloom-
ing -- blooming modestly -- like a violet, not like some of these
blatant tropical flowers. He had been in the house for six weeks,
and had not as yet attempted to slap him on the back, or address
him as "old boy," or try to make him feel a superannuated fossil.
He had nothing of the exasperating young man's chatter. He was
good-tempered, had not much to say for himself, was not clever by
any means, thank goodness -- wrote my friend. It appeared, how-
ever, that Jim was clever enough to be quietly appreciative of his
wit, while, on the other hand, he amused him by his naiveness.
"The dew is yet on him, and since I had the bright idea of giving
him a room in the house and having him at meals I feel less withered
myself. The other day he took it into his head to cross the room
with no other purpose but to open a door for me; and I felt more in
touch with mankind than I had been for years. Ridiculous, isn't it?
Of course I guess there is something -- some awful little scrape --
which you know all about -- but if I am sure that it is terribly
heinous, I fancy one could manage to forgive it. For my part, I
declare I am unable to imagine him guilty of anything much worse
than robbing an orchard. Is it much worse? Perhaps you ought to
have told me; but it is such a long time since we both turned saints
that you may have forgotten we too had sinned in our time? It may
be that some day I shall have to ask you, and then I shall expect to
be told. I don't care to question him myself till I have some idea
what it is. Moreover, it's too soon as yet. Let him open the door a-
few times more for me...." Thus my friend. I was trebly pleased --
at Jim's shaping so well, at the tone of the letter, at my own clever-
ness. Evidently I had known what I was doing. I had read characters
aright, and so on. And what if something unexpected and wonderful
were to come of it? That evening, reposing in a deck-chair under
the shade of my own poop awning (it was in Hong-Kong harbour),
I laid on Jim's behalf the first stone of a castle in Spain.
  'I made a trip to the northward, and when I returned I found
another letter from my friend waiting for me. It was the first envel-
ope I tore open. "There are no spoons missing, as far as I know,"
ran the first line; "I haven't been interested enough to inquire. He
is gone, leaving on the breakfast-table a formal little note of apology,
which is either silly or heartless. Probably both -- and it's all one to
me. Allow me to say, lest you should have some more mysterious
young men in reserve, that I have shut up shop, definitely and for
ever. This is the last eccentricity I shall be guilty of. Do not imagine
for a moment that I care a hang; but he is very much regretted at
tennis-parties, and for my own sake I've told a plausible lie at the
club...." I flung the letter aside and started looking through the
batch on my table, till I came upon Jim's handwriting. Would you
believe it? One chance in a hundred! But it is always that hundredth
chance! That little second engineer of the Patna had turned up in
a more or less destitute state, and got a temporary job of looking
after the machinery of the mill. "I couldn't stand the familiarity of
the little beast," Jim wrote from a seaport seven hundred miles
south of the place where he should have been in clover. "I am now
for the time with Egstrom & Blake, ship-chandlers, as their -- well --
runner, to call the thing by its right name. For reference I gave
them your name, which they know of course, and if you could write
a word in my favour it would be a permanent employment." I was
utterly crushed under the ruins of my castle, but of course I wrote
as desired. Before the end of the year my new charter took me that
way, and I had an opportunity of seeing him.
  'He was still with Egstrom & Blake, and we met in what they
called "our parlour" opening out of the store. He had that moment
come in from boarding a ship, and confronted me head down, ready
for a tussle. "What have you got to say for yourself?" I began as
soon as we had shaken hands. "What I wrote you -- nothing more,"
he said stubbornly. "Did the fellow blab -- or what?" I asked. He
looked up at me with a troubled smile. "Ohno! He didn't. He made
it a kind of confidential business between us. He was most damnably
mysterious whenever I came over to the mill; he would wink at me
in a respectful manner -- as much as to say 'We know what we
know.' Infernally fawning and familiar - -and that sort of thing . . ."
He threw himself into a chair and stared down his legs. "One day
we happened to be alone and the fellow had the cheek to say, 'Well,
Mr. James' -- I was called Mr. James there as if I had been the son --
'here we are together once more. This is better than the old ship --
ain't it?' . . . Wasn't it appalling, eh? I looked at him, and he put
on a knowing air. 'Don't you be uneasy, sir,' he says. 'I know a
gentleman when I see one, and I know how a gentleman feels. I
hope, though, you will be keeping me on this job. I had a hard time
of it too, along of that rotten old Patna racket.' Jove! It was awful.
I don't know what I should have said or done if I had not just then
heard Mr. Denver calling me in the passage. It was tiffin-time, and
we walked together across the yard and through the garden to the
bungalow. He began to chaff me in his kindly way . . . I believe he
liked me . . ."
  'Jim was silent for a while.
  ' "I know he liked me. That's what made it so hard. Such a
splendid man! . . . That morning he slipped his hand under my
arm.... He, too, was familiar with me." He burst into a short
laugh, and dropped his chin on his breast. "Pah! When I remem-
bered how that mean little beast had been talking to me," he began
suddenly in a vibrating voice, "I couldn't bear to think of
myself ... I suppose you know ..." I nodded.... "More like a
father," he cried; his voice sank. "I would have had to tell him. I
couldn't let it go on -- could I?" "Well?" I murmured, after waiting
a while. "I preferred to go," he said slowly; "this thing must be
buried."
  'We could hear in the shop Blake upbraiding Egstrom in an
abusive, strained voice. They had been associated for many years,
and every day from the moment the doors were opened to the last
minute before closing, Blake, a little man with sleek, jetty hair and
unhappy, beady eyes, could be heard rowing his partner incessantly
with a sort of scathing and plaintive fury. The sound of that everlast-
ing scolding was part of the place like the other fixtures; even stran-
gers would very soon come to disregard it completely unless it be
perhaps to mutter "Nuisance," or to get up suddenly and shut
the door of the "parlour." Egstrom himself, a raw-boned, heavy
Scandinavian, with a busy manner and immense blonde whiskers,
went on directing his people, checking parcels, making out bills or
writing letters at a stand-up desk in the shop, and comported him-
self in that clatter exactly as though he had been stone-deaf. Now
and again he would emit a bothered perfunctory "Sssh," which
neither produced nor was expected to produce the slightest effect.
"They are very decent to me here," said Jim. "Blake's a little cad,
but Egstrom's all right." He stood up quickly, and walking with
measured steps to a tripod telescope standing in the window and
pointed at the roadstead, he applied his eye to it. "There's that ship
which has been becalmed outside all the morning has got a breeze
now and is coming in," he remarked patiently; "I must go and
board." We shook hands in silence, and he turned to go. "Jim!" I
cried. He looked round with his hand on the lock. "You -- you have
thrown away something like a fortune." He came back to me all the
way from the door. "Such a splendid old chap," he said. "How
could I? How could I?" His lips twitched. "Here it does not matter."
"Oh! you -- you --" I began, and had to cast about for a suitable
word, but before I became aware that there was no name that would
just do, he was gone. I heard outside Egstrom's deep gentle voice
saying cheerily, "That's the Sarah W. Granger, Jimmy. You must
manage to be first aboard"; and directly Blake struck in, screaming
after the manner of an outraged cockatoo, "Tell the captain we've
got some of his mail here. That'll fetch him. D'ye hear, Mister
What's-your-name?" And there was Jim answering Egstrom with
something boyish in his tone. "All right. I'll make a race of it." He
seemed to take refuge in the boat-sailing part of that sorry business.
  'I did not see him again that trip, but on my next (I had a six
months' charter) I went up to the store. Ten yards away from the
door Blake's scolding met my ears, and when I came in he gave
me a glance of utter wretchedness; Egstrom, all smiles, advanced,
extending a large bony hand. "Glad to see you, captain....
Sssh.... Been thinking you were about due back here. What did
you say, sir? ... Sssh.... Oh! him! He has left us. Come into the
parlour." . . . After the slam of the door Blake's strained voice
became faint, as the voice of one scolding desperately in a wilder-
ness.... "Put us to a great inconvenience, too. Used us badly -- I
must say . . ." "Where's he gone to? Do you know?" I asked. "No.
It's no use asking either," said Egstrom, standing bewhiskered and
obliging before me with his arms hanging down his sides clumsily,
and a thin silver watch-chain looped very low on a rucked-up blue
serge waistcoat. "A man like that don't go anywhere in particular."
I was too concerned at the news to ask for the explanation of that
pronouncement, and he went on. "He left -- let's see -- the very day
a steamer with returning pilgrims from the Red Sea put in here with
two blades of her propeller gone. Three weeks ago now." "Wasn't
there something said about the Patna case?" I asked, fearing the
worst. He gave a start, and looked at me as if I had been a sorcerer.
"Why, yes! How do you know? Some of them were talking about
it here. There was a captain or two, the manager of Vanlo's engin-
eering shop at the harbour, two or three others, and myself. Jim
was in here too, having a sandwich and a glass of beer; when we are
busy -- you see, captain -- there's no time for a proper tiffin. He was
standing by this table eating sandwiches, and the rest of us were
round the telescope watching that steamer come in; and by-and-by
Vanlo's manager began to talk about the chief of the Patna; he had
done some repairs for him once, and from that he went on to tell
us what an old ruin she was, and the money that had been made
out of her. He came to mention her last voyage, and then we all
struck in. Some said one thing and some another -- not'much -- what
you or any other man might say; and there was some laughing.
Captain O'Brien of the Sarah W. Granger, a large, noisy old man
with a stick -- he was sitting listening to us in this arm-chair here --
he let drive suddenly with his stick at the floor, and roars out,
'Skunks!' . . . Made us all jump. Vanlo's manager winks at us and
asks, 'What's the matter, Captain O'Brien?' 'Matter! matter!' the
old man began to shout; 'what are you Injuns laughing at? It's no
laughing matter. It's a disgrace to human natur' -- that's what it is.
I would despise being seen in the same room with one of those men.
Yes, sir!' He seemed to catch my eye like, and I had to speak out
of civility. 'Skunks!' says I, 'of course, Captain O'Brien, and I
wouldn't care to have them here myself, so you're quite safe in this
room, Captain O'Brien. Have a little something cool to drink.'
'Dam' your drink, Egstrom,' says he, with a twinkle in his eye;
'when I want a drink I will shout for it. I am going to quit. It stinks
here now.' At this all the others burst out laughing, and out they
go after the old man. And then, sir, that blasted Jim he puts down
the sandwich he had in his hand and walks round the table to me;
there was his glass of beer poured out quite full. 'I am off,' he says -
just like this. 'It isn't half-past one yet,' says I; 'you might snatch
a smoke first.' I thought he meant it was time for him to go down
to his work. When I understood what he was up to, my arms fell --
so! Can't get a man like that every day, you know, sir; a regular
devil for sailing a boat; ready to go out miles to sea to meet ships in
any sort of weather. More than once a captain would come in here
full of it, and the first thing he would say would be, 'That's a
reckless sort of a lunatic you've got for water-clerk, Egstrom. I was
feeling my way in at daylight under short canvas when there comes
flying out of the mist right under my forefoot a boat half under
water, sprays going over the mast-head, two frightened niggers on
the bottom boards, a yelling fiend at the tiller. Hey! hey! Ship ahoy!
ahoy! Captain! Hey! hey! Egstrom & Blake's man first to speak to
you! Hey! hey! Egstrom & Blake! Hallo! hey! whoop! Kick the
niggers -- out reefs -- a squall on at the time -- shoots ahead whooping
and yelling to me to make sail and he would give me a lead in --
more like a demon than a man. Never saw a boat handled like that
in all my life. Couldn't have been drunk -- was he? Such a quiet, soft-
spoken chap too -- blush like a girl when he came on board.... ' I
tell you, Captain Marlow, nobody had a chance against us with a
strange ship when Jim was out. The other ship-chandlers just kept
their old customers, and . . ."
  'Egstrom appeared overcome with emotion.
  ' "Why, sir -- it seemed as though he wouldn't mind going a
hundred miles out to sea in an old shoe to nab a ship for the firm.
If the business had been his own and all to make yet, he couldn't
have done more in that way. And now . . . all at once . . . like this!
Thinks I to myself: 'Oho! a rise in the screw -- that's the trouble --
is it?' 'All right,' says I, 'no need of all that fuss with me, Jimmy.
Just mention your figure. Anything in reason.' He looks at me as if
he wanted to swallow something that stuck in his throat. 'I can't
stop with you.' 'What's that blooming joke?' I asks. He shakes his
head, and I could see in his eye he was as good as gone already, sir.
So I turned to him and slanged him till all was blue. 'What is it
you're running away from?' I asks. 'Who has been getting at you?
What scared you? You haven't as much sense as a rat; they don't
clear out from a good ship. Where do you expect to get a better
berth? -- you this and you that.' I made him look sick, I can tell
you. 'This business ain't going to sink,' says I. He gave a big jump.
'Good-bye,' he says, nodding at me like a lord; 'you ain't half a bad
chap, Egstrom. I give you my word that if you knew my reasons
you wouldn't care to keep me.' 'That's the biggest lie you ever told
in your life,' says I; 'I know my own mind.' He made me so mad
that I had to laugh. 'Can't you really stop long enough to drink this
glass of beer here, you funny beggar, you?' I don't know what came
over him; he didn't seem able to find the door; something comical,
I can tell you, captain. I drank the beer myself. 'Well, if you're in
such a hurry, here's luck to you in your own drink,' says I; 'only,
you mark my words, if you keep up this game you'll very soon find
that the earth ain't big enough to hold you -- that's all.' He gave me
one black look, and out he rushed with a face fit to scare little
children."
  'Egstrom snorted bitterly, and combed one auburn whisker with
knotty fingers. "Haven't been able to get a man that was any good
since. It's nothing but worry, worry, worry in business. And where
might you have come across him, captain, if it's fair to ask?"
  ' "He was the mate of the Patna that voyage," I said, feeling that
I owed some explanation. For a time Egstrom remained very still,
with his fingers plunged in the hair at the side of his face, and then
exploded. "And who the devil cares about that?" "I dare say no
one," I began . . . "And what the devil is he -- anyhow -- for to go
on like this?" He stuffed suddenly his left whisker into his mouth
and stood amazed. "Jee!" he exclaimed, "I told him the earth
wouldn't be big enough to hold his caper." '

                    CHAPTER 19

  'I have told you these two episodes at length to show his manner
of dealing with himself under the new conditions of his life. There
were many others of the sort, more than I could count on the fingers
of my two hands. They were all equally tinged by a high-minded
absurdity of intention which made their futility profound and
touching. To fling away your daily bread so as to get your hands
free for a grapple with a ghost may be an act of prosaic heroism.
Men had done it before (though we who have lived know full well
that it is not the haunted soul but the hungry body that makes an
outcast), and men who had eaten and meant to eat every day had
applauded the creditable folly. He was indeed unfortunate, for all
his recklessness could not carry him out from under the shadow.
There was always a doubt of his courage. The truth seems to be
that it is impossible to lay the ghost of a fact. You can face it or
shirk it -- and I have come across a man or two who could wink at
their familiar shades. Obviously Jim was not of the winking sort;
but what I could never make up my mind about was whether his
line of conduct amounted to shirking his ghost or to facing him out.
  'I strained my mental eyesight only to discover that, as with the
complexion of all our actions, the shade of difference was so delicate
that it was impossible to say. It might have been flight and it might
have been a mode of combat. To the common mind he became
known as a rolling stone, because this was the funniest part: he did
after a time become perfectly known, and even notorious, within
the circle of his wanderings (which had a diameter of, say, three
thousand miles), in the same way as an eccentric character is known
to a whole countryside. For instance, in Bankok, where he found
employment with Yucker Brothers, charterers and teak mer-
chants, it was almost pathetic to see him go about in sunshine
hugging his secret, which was known to the very up-country logs on
the river. Schomberg, the keeper of the hotel where he boarded, a
hirsute Alsatian of manly bearing and an irrepressible retailer of all
the scandalous gossip of the place, would, with both elbows on the
table, impart an adorned version of the story to any guest who cared
to imbibe knowledge along with the more costly liquors. "And,
mind you, the nicest fellow you could meet," would be his generous
conclusion; "quite superior." It says a lot for the casual crowd that
frequented Schomberg's establishment that Jim managed to hang
out in Bankok for a whole six months. I remarked that people,
perfect strangers, took to him as one takes to a nice child. His
manner was reserved, but it was as though his personal appearance,
his hair, his eyes, his smile, made friends for him wherever he went.
And, of course, he was no fool. I heard Siegmund Yucker (native
of Switzerland), a gentle creature ravaged by a cruel dyspepsia, and
so frightfully lame that his head swung through a quarter of a circle
at every step he took, declare appreciatively that for one so young
he was "of great gabasidy," as though it had been a mere question
of cubic contents. "Why not send him up country?" I suggested
anxiously. (Yucker Brothers had concessions and teak forests in the
interior.) "If he has capacity, as you say, he will soon get hold of the
work. And physically he is very fit. His health is always excellent."
"Ach! It's a great ting in dis goundry to be vree vrom tispep-shia,"
sighed poor Yucker enviously, casting a stealthy glance at the pit
of his ruined stomach. I left him drumming pensively on his desk
and muttering, "Es ist ein' Idee. Es ist ein' Idee." Unfortunately,
that very evening an unpleasant affair took place in the hotel.
  'I don't know that I blame Jim very much, but it was a truly
regrettable incident. It belonged to the lamentable species of bar-
room scuffles, and the other party to it was a cross-eyed Dane of
sorts whose visiting-card recited, under his misbegotten name: first
lieutenant in the Royal Siamese Navy. The fellow, of course, was
utterly hopeless at billiards, but did not like to be beaten, I suppose.
He had had enough to drink to turn nasty after the sixth game, and
make some scornful remark at Jim's expense. Most of the people
there didn't hear what was said, and those who had heard seemed to
have had all precise recollection scared out of them by the appalling
nature of the consequences that immediately ensued. It was very
lucky for the Dane that he could swim, because the room opened
on a verandah and the Menam flowed below very wide and black.
A boat-load of Chinamen, bound, as likely as not, on some thieving
expedition, fished out the officer of the King of Siam, and Jim
turned up at about midnight on board my ship without a hat.
"Everybody in the room seemed to know," he said, gasping yet
from the contest, as it were. He was rather sorry, on general prin-
ciples, for what had happened, though in this case there had been,
he said, "no option." But what dismayed him was to find the nature
of his burden as well known to everybody as though he had gone
about all that time carrying it on his shoulders. Naturally after this
he couldn't remain in the place. He was universally condemned for
the brutal violence, so unbecoming a man in his delicate position;
some maintained he had been disgracefully drunk at the time;
others criticised his want of tact. Even Schomberg was very much
annoyed. "He is a very nice young man," he said argumentatively
to me, "but the lieutenant is a first-rate fellow too. He dines every
night at my table d'hote, you know. And there's a billiard-cue
broken. I can't allow that. First thing this morning I went over with
my apologies to the lieutenant, and I think I've made it all right for
myself; but only think, captain, if everybody started such games!
Why, the man might have been drowned! And here I can't run out
into the next street and buy a new cue. I've got to write to Europe
for them. No, no! A temper like that won't do!" . . . He was
extremely sore on the subject.
  'This was the worst incident of all in his -- his retreat. Nobody
could deplore it more than myself; for if, as somebody said hearing
him mentioned, "Oh yes! I know. He has knocked about a good
deal out here," yet he had somehow avoided being battered and
chipped in the process. This last affair, however, made me seriously
uneasy, because if his exquisite sensibilities were to go the length
of involving him in pot-house shindies, he would lose his name of
an inoffensive, if aggravating, fool, and acquire that of a common
loafer. For all my confidence in him I could not help reflecting that
in such cases from the name to the thing itself is but a step. I suppose
you will understand that by that time I could not think of washing
my hands of him. I took him away from Bankok in my ship, and
we had a longish passage. It was pitiful to see how he shrank within
himself. A seaman, even if a mere passenger, takes an interest in a
ship, and looks at the sea-life around him with the critical enjoyment
of a painter, for instance, looking at another man's work. In every
sense of the expression he is "on deck"; but my Jim, for the most
part, skulked down below as though he had been a stowaway. He
infected me so that I avoided speaking on professional matters,
such as would suggest themselves naturally to two sailors during a
passage. For whole days we did not exchange a word; I felt
extremely unwilling to give orders to my officers in his presence.
Often, when alone with him on deck or in the cabin, we didn't
know what to do with our eyes.
  'I placed him with De Jongh, as you know, glad enough to dispose
of him in any way, yet persuaded that his position was now growing
intolerable. He had lost some of that elasticity which had enabled
him to rebound back into his uncompromising position after every
overthrow. One day, coming ashore, I saw him standing on the
quay; the water of the roadstead and the sea in the offing made one
smooth ascending plane, and the outermost ships at anchor seemed
to ride motionless in the sky. He was waiting for his boat, which
was being loaded at our feet with packages of small stores for some
vessel ready to leave. After exchanging greetings, we remained sil-
ent -- side by side. "Jove!" he said suddenly, "this is killing work."
  'He smiled at me; I must say he generally could manage a smile.
I made no reply. I knew very well he was not alluding to his duties;
he had an easy time of it with De Jongh. Nevertheless, as soon as
he had spoken I became completely convinced that the work was
killing. I did not even look at him. "Would you like," said I, "to
leave this part of the world altogether; try California or the West
Coast? I'll see what I can do . . ." He interrupted me a little scorn-
fully. "What difference would it make?" . . . I felt at once con-
vinced that he was right. It would make no difference; it was not
relief he wanted; I seemed to perceive dimly that what he wanted,
what he was, as it were, waiting for, was something not easy to
define -- something in the nature of an opportunity. I had given him
many opportunities, but they had been merely opportunities to earn
his bread. Yet what more could any man do? The position struck
me as hopeless, and poor Brierly's saying recurred to me, "Let
him creep twenty feet underground and stay there." Better that, I
thought, than this waiting above ground for the impossible. Yet
one could not be sure even of that. There and then, before his boat
was three oars' lengths away from the quay, I had made up my
mind to go and consult Stein in the evening.
  'This Stein was a wealthy and respected merchant. His "house"
(because it was a house, Stein & Co., and there was some sort of
partner who, as Stein said, "looked after the Moluccas") had a large
inter-island business, with a lot of trading posts established in the
most out-of-the-way places for collecting the produce. His wealth
and his respectability were not exactly the reasons why I was anxious
to seek his advice. I desired to confide my difficulty to him because
he was one of the most trustworthy men I had ever known. The
gentle light of a simple, unwearied, as it were, and intelligent good-
nature illumined his long hairless face. It had deep downward folds,
and was pale as of a man who had always led a sedentary life -- which
was indeed very far from being the case. His hair was thin, and
brushed back from a massive and lofty forehead. One fancied that
at twenty he must have looked very much like what he was now at
threescore. It was a student's face; only the eyebrows nearly all
white, thick and bushy, together with the resolute searching glance
that came from under them, were not in accord with his, I may say,
learned appearance. He was tall and loose-jointed; his slight stoop,
together with an innocent smile, made him appear benevolently
ready to lend you his ear; his long arms with pale big hands had
rare deliberate gestures of a pointing out, demonstrating kind. I
speak of him at length, because under this exterior, and in conjunc-
tion with an upright and indulgent nature, this man possessed an
intrepidity of spirit and a physical courage that could have been
called reckless had it not been like a natural function of the body --
say good digestion, for instance -- completely unconscious of itself.
It is sometimes said of a man that he carries his life in his hand.
Such a saying would have been inadequate if applied to him; during
the early part of his existence in the East he had been playing ball
with it. All this was in the past, but I knew the story of his life and
the origin of his fortune. He was also a naturalist of some distinc-
tion, or perhaps I should say a learned collector. Entomology was
his special study. His collection of Buprestidae and Longicorns --
beetles all -- horrible miniature monsters, looking malevolent in
death and immobility, and his cabinet of butterflies, beautiful and
hovering under the glass of cases on lifeless wings, had spread his
fame far over the earth. The name of this merchant, adventurer,
sometime adviser of a Malay sultan (to whom he never alluded
otherwise than as "my poor Mohammed Bonso"), had, on account
of a few bushels of dead insects, become known to learned persons
in Europe, who could have had no conception, and certainly would
not have cared to know anything, of his life or character. I, who
knew, considered him an eminently suitable person to receive my
confidences about Jim's difficulties as well as my own.'

                        CHAPTER 20

  'Late in the evening I entered his study, after traversing an
imposing but empty dining-room very dimly lit. The house was
silent. I was preceded by an elderly grim Javanese servant in a sort
of livery of white jacket and yellow sarong, who, after throwing
the door open, exclaimed low, "O master!" and stepping aside,
vanished in a mysterious way as though he had been a ghost only
momentarily embodied for that particular service. Stein turned
round with the chair, and in the same movement his spectacles
seemed to get pushed up on his forehead. He welcomed me in his
quiet and humorous voice. Only one corner of the vast room, the
corner in which stood his writing-desk, was strongly lighted by a
shaded reading-lamp, and the rest of the spacious apartment melted
into shapeless gloom like a cavern. Narrow shelves filled with dark
boxes of uniform shape and colour ran round the walls, not from
floor to ceiling, but in a sombre belt about four feet broad -- cata-
combs of beetles. Wooden tablets were hung above at irregular
intervals. The light reached one of them, and the word Coleoptera
written in gold letters glittered mysteriously upon a vast dimness.
The glass cases containing the collection of butterflies were ranged
in three long rows upon slender-legged little tables. One of these
cases had been removed from its place and stood on the desk, which
was bestrewn with oblong slips of paper blackened with minute
handwriting.
  ' "So you see me -- so," he said. His hand hovered over the case
where a butterfly in solitary grandeur spread out dark bronze wings,
seven inches or more across, with exquisite white veinings and a
gorgeous border of yellow spots. "Only one specimen like this they
have in your London, and then -- no more. To my small native town
this my collection I shall bequeath. Something of me. The best."
  'He bent forward in the chair and gazed intently, his chin over
the front of the case. I stood at his back. "Marvellous," he whis-
pered, and seemed to forget my presence. His history was curious.
He had been born in Bavaria, and when a youth of twenty-two had
taken an active part in the revolutionary movement of 1848. Heavily
compromised, he managed to make his escape, and at first found a
refuge with a poor republican watchmaker in Trieste. From there
he made his way to Tripoli with a stock of cheap watches to hawk
about, -- not a very great opening truly, but it turned out lucky
enough, because it was there he came upon a Dutch traveller -- a
rather famous man, I believe, but I don't remember his name. It
was that naturalist who, engaging him as a sort of assistant, took
him to the East. They travelled in the Archipelago together and
separately, collecting insects and birds, for four years or more.
Then the naturalist went home, and Stein, having no home to go
to, remained with an old trader he had come across in his journeys
in the interior of Celebes -- if Celebes may be said to have an interior.
This old Scotsman, the only white man allowed to reside in the
country at the time, was a privileged friend of the chief ruler of
Wajo States, who was a woman. I often heard Stein relate how that
chap, who was slightly paralysed on one side, had introduced him
to the native court a short time before another stroke carried him
off. He was a heavy man with a patriarchal white beard, and of
imposing stature. He came into the council-hall where all the rajahs,
pangerans, and headmen were assembled, with the queen, a fat
wrinkled woman (very free in her speech, Stein said), reclining on
a high couch under a canopy. He dragged his leg, thumping with
his stick, and grasped Stein's arm, leading him right up to the
couch. "Look, queen, and you rajahs, this is my son," he pro-
claimed in a stentorian voice. "I have traded with your fathers, and
when I die he shall trade with you and your sons."
  'By means of this simple formality Stein inherited the Scotsman's
privileged position and all his stock-in-trade, together with a forti-
fied house on the banks of the only navigable river in the country.
Shortly afterwards the old queen, who was so free in her speech,
died, and the country became disturbed by various pretenders to
the throne. Stein joined the party of a younger son, the one of
whom thirty years later he never sppke otherwise but as "my poor
Mohammed Bonso." They both became the heroes of innumerable
exploits; they had wonderful adventures, and once stood a siege in
the Scotsman's house for a month, with only a score of followers
against a whole army. I believe the natives talk of that war to this
day. Meantime, it seems, Stein never failed to annex on his own
account every butterfly or beetle he could lay hands on. After some
eight years of war, negotiations, false truces, sudden outbreaks,
reconciliation, treachery, and so on, and just as peace seemed at
last permanently established, his "poor Mohammed Bonso" was
assassinated at the gate of his own royal residence while dismount-
ing in the highest spirits on his return from a successful deer-hunt.
This event rendered Stein's position extremely insecure, but he
would have stayed perhaps had it not been that a short time after-
wards he lost Mohammed's sister ("my dear wife the princess," he
used to say solemnly), by whom he had had a daughter -- mother
and child both dying within three days of each other from some
infectious fever. He left the country, which this cruel loss had made
unbearable to him. Thus ended the first and adventurous part of
his existence. What followed was so different that, but for the reality
of sorrow which remained with him, this strang past must have
resembled a dream. He had a little money; he started life afresh,
and in the course of years acquired a considerable fortune. At first
he had travelled a good deal amongst the islands, but age had stolen
upon him, and of late he seldom left his spacious house three miles
out of town, with an extensive garden, and surrounded by stables,
offices, and bamboo cottages for his servants and dependants, of
whom he had many. He drove in his buggy every morning to town,
where he had an office with white and Chinese clerks. He owned a
small fleet of schooners and native craft, and dealt in island produce
on a large scale. For the rest he lived solitary, but not misanthropic,
with his books and his collection, classing and arranging specimens,
corresponding with entomologists in Europe, writing up a descrip-
tive catalogue of his treasures. Such was the history of the man
whom I had come to consult upon Jim's case without any definite
hope. Simply to hear what he would have to say would have been
a relief. I was very anxious, but I respected the intense, almost
passionate, absorption with which he looked at a butterfly, as
though on the bronze sheen of these frail wings, in the white
tracings, in the gorgeous markings, he could see other things, an
image of something as perishable and defying destruction as these
delicate and lifeless tissues displaying a splendour unmarred by
death.
  ' "Marvellious!" he repeated, looking up at me. "Look! The
beauty -- but that is nothing -- look at the accuracy, the harmony.
And so fragile! And so strong! And so exact! This is Nature -- the
balance of colossal forces. Every star is so -- and every blade of
grass stands so -- and the mighty Kosmos il perfect equilibrium
produces -- this. This wonder; this masterpiece of Nature -- the great
artist."
  ' "Never heard an entomologist go on like this," I observed
cheerfully. "Masterpiece! And what of man?'
  ' "Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece," he said, keeping
his eyes fixed on the glass case. "Perhaps the artist was a little mad.
Eh? What do you think? Sometimes it seems to me that man is
come where he is not wanted, where there is no place for him; for
if not, why should he want all the place? Why should he run about
here and there making a great noise about himself, talking about
the stars, disturbing the blades of grass? . . ."
  ' "Catching butterflies," I chimed in.
  'He smiled, threw himself back in his chair, and stretched his
legs. "Sit down," he said. "I captured this rare specimen myself
one very fine morning. And I had a very big emotion. You don't
know what it is for a collector to capture such a rare specimen. You
can't know."
  'I smiled at my ease in a rocking-chair. His eyes seemed to look
far beyond the wall at which they stared; and he narrated how, one
night, a messenger arrived from his "poor Mohammed," requiring
his presence at the "residenz" -- as he called it -- which was distant
some nine or ten miles by a bridle-path over a cultivated plain, with
patches of forest here and there. Early in the morning he started
from his fortified house, after embracing his little Emma, and leav-
ing the "princess," his wife, in command. He described how she
came with him as far as the gate, walking with one hand on the neck
of his horse; she had on a white jacket, gold pins in her hair, and a
brown leather belt over her left shoulder with a revolver in it. "She
talked as women will talk," he said, "telling me to be careful, and
to try to get back before dark, and what a great wikedness it was
for me to go alone. We were at war, and the country was not safe;
my men were putting up bullet-proof shutters to the house and
loading their rifles, and she begged me to have no fear for her.
She could defend the house against anybody till I returned. And I
laughed with pleasure a little. I liked to see her so brave and young
and strong. I too was young then. At the gate she caught hold of
my hand and gave it one squeeze and fell back. I made my horse
stand still outside till I heard the bars of the gate put up behind me.
There was a great enemy of mine, a great noble -- and a great rascal
too -- roaming with a band in the neighbourhood. I cantered for
four or five miles; there had been rain in the night, but the musts
had gone up, up -- and the face of the earth was clean; it lay smiling
to me, so fresh and innocent -- like a little chilid. Suddenliy somebody
fires a volley -- twenty shots at least it seemed to me. I hear bullets
sing in my ear, and my hat jumps to the back of my head. It was a
little intrigue, you understand. They got my poor Mohammed to
send for me and then laid that ambush. I see it all in a minute, and
I think -- This wants a little management. My pony snort, jump,
and stand, and I fall slowly forward with my head on his mane. He
begins to walk, and with one eye I could see over his neck a faint
cloud of smoke hanging in front of a clump of bamboos to my left.
I think -- Aha! my friends, why you not wait long enough before
you shoot? This is not yet gelungen. Oh no! I get hold of my revolver
with my right hand -- quiet -- quiet. After all, there were only seven
of these rascals. They get up from the grass and start running with
their sarongs tucked up, waving spears above their heads, and yel-
ling to each other to look out and catch the horse, because I was
dead. I let them come as close as the door here, and then bang,
bang, bang -- take aim each time too. One more shot I fire at a man's
back, but I miss. Too far already. And then I sit alone on my horse
with the clean earth smiling at me, and there are the bodies of three
men lying on the ground. One was curled up like a dog, another on
his back had an arm over his eyes as if to keep off the sun, and the
third man he draws up his leg very slowly and makes it with one
kick straight again. I watch him very carefully from my horse, but
there is no more -- bleibt ganz ruhig -- keep still, so. And as I looked
at his face for some sign of life I observed something like a faint
shadow pass over his forehead. It was the shadow of this butterfly.
Look at the form of the wing. This species fly high with a strong
flight. I raised my eyes and I saw him fluttering away. I think -- Can
it be possible? And then I lost him. I dismounted and went on very
slow, leading my horse and holding my revolver with one hand and
my eyes darting up and down and right and left, everywhere! At last
I saw him sitting on a small heap of dirt ten feet away. At once my
heart began to beat quick. I let go my horse, keep my revolver in one
hand, and with the other snatch my soft felt hat off my head. One
step. Steady. Another step. Flop! I got him! When I got up I shook
like a leaf with excitement, and when I opened these beautiful wings
and made sure what a rare and so extraordinary perfect specimen I
had, my head went round and my legs became so weak with emotion
that I had to sit on the ground. I had greatly desired to possess myself
of a specimen of that species when collecting for the professor. I took
long journeys and underwent great privations; I had dreamed of him
in my sleep, and here suddenly I had him in my fingers -- for myself!
In the words of the poet" (he pronounced it "boet") --

        " 'So halt' ich's endlich denn in meinen Handen,
           Und nenn' es in gewissem Sinne mein.' "

He gave to the last word the emphasis of a suddenly lowered voice,
and withdrew his eyes slowly from my face. He began to charge a
long-stemmed pipe busily and in silence, then, pausing with his
thumb on the orifice of the bowl, looked again at me significantly.
  ' "Yes, my good friend. On that day I had nothing to desire; I
had greatly annoyed my principal enemy; I was young, strong; I
had friendship; I had the love" (he said "lof') "of woman, a child
I had, to make my heart very full -- and even what I had once
dreamed in my sleep had come into my hand too!"
  'He struck a match, which flared violently. His thoughtful placid
face twitched once.
  ' "Friend, wife, child," he said slowly, gazing at the small flame --
"phoo!" The match was blown out. He sighed and turned again to
the glass case. The frail and beautiful wings quivered faintly, as if
his breath had for an instant called back to life that gorgeous object
of his dreams.
  ' "The work," he began suddenly, pointing to the scattered slips,
and in his usual gentle and cheery tone, "is making great progress.
I have been this rare specimen describing.... Na! And what is
your good news?"
  ' "To tell you the truth, Stein," I said with an effort that sur-
prised me, "I came here to describe a specimen...."
  ' "Butterfly?" he asked, with an unbelieving and humorous
eagerness.
  ' "Nothing so perfect," I answered, feeling suddenly dispirited
with all sorts of doubts. "A man!"
  ' "Ach so!" he murmured, and his smiling countenance, turned
to me, became grave. Then after looking at me for a while he said
slowly, "Well -- I am a man too."
  'Here you have him as he was; he knew how to be so generously
encouraging as to make a scrupulous man hesitate on the brink of
confidence; but if I did hesitate it was not for long.
  'He heard me out, sitting with crossed legs. Sometimes his head
would disappear completely in a great eruption of smoke, and a
sympathetic growl would come out from the cloud. When I finished
he uncrossed his legs, laid down his pipe, leaned forward towards
me earnestly with his elbows on the arms of his chair, the tips of
his fingers together.
  ' "I understand very well. He is romantic."
  'He had diagnosed the case for me, and at first I was quite startled
to find how simple it was; and indeed our conference resembled so
much a medical consultation -- Stein, of learned aspect, sitting in
an arm-chair before his desk; I, anxious, in another, facing him,
but a little to one side -- that it seemed natural to ask --
  ' "What's good for it?"
  'He lifted up a long forefinger.
  ' "There is only one remedy! One thing alone can us from being
ourselves cure!" The finger came down on the desk with a smart
rap. The case which he had made to look so simple before became
if possible still simpler -- and altogether hopeless. There was a pause.
"Yes," said I, "strictly speaking, the question is not how to get
cured, but how to live."
  'He approved with his head, a little sadly as it seemed. "Ja!
ja! In general, adapting the words of your great poet: That is the
question...." He went on nodding sympathetically.... "How
to be! Ach! How to be."
  'He stood up with the tips of his fingers resting on the desk.
  ' "We want in so many different ways to be," he began again.
"This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still
on it; but man he will never on his heap of mud keep still. He want
to be so, and again he want to be so...." He moved his hand up,
then down.... "He wants to be a saint, and he wants to be a
devil -- and every time he shuts his eyes he sees himself as a very
fine fellow -- so fine as he can never be.... In a dream...."
  'He lowered the glass lid, the automatic lock clicked sharply, and
taking up the case in both hands he bore it religiously away to its
place, passing out of the bright circle of the lamp into the ring of
fainter light -- into shapeless dusk at last. It had an odd effect -- as
if these few steps had carried him out of this concrete and perplexed
world. His tall form, as though robbed of its substance, hovered
noiselessly over invisible things with stooping and indefinite move-
ments; his voice, heard in that remoteness where he could be
glimpsed mysteriously busy with immaterial cares, was no longer
incisive, seemed to roll voluminous and grave -- mellowed by dis-
tance.
  ' "And because you not always can keep your eyes shut there
comes the real trouble -- the heart pain -- the world pain. I tell you,
my friend, it is not good for you to find you cannot make your
dream come true, for the reason that you not strong enough are, or
not clever enough. .Ja! . . . And all the time you are such a fine
fellow too! Wie? Was? Gott im Himmel! How can that be? Ha! ha!
ha!"
  'The shadow prowling amongst the graves of butterflies laughed
boisterously.
  ' "Yes! Very funny this terrible thing is. A man that is born falls
into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb
out into the air as inexperienced people endeavour to do, he
drowns -- nicht wahr? . . . No! I tell you! The way is to the destruc-
tive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands
and feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up. So if
you ask me -- how to be?"
  'His voice leaped up extraordinarily strong, as though away there
in the dusk he had been inspired by some whisper of knowledge.
"I will tell you! For that too there is only one way."
  'With a hasty swish-swish of his slippers he loomed up in the ring
of faint light, and suddenly appeared in the bright circle of the
lamp. His extended hand aimed at my breast like a pistol; his deep-
set eyes seemed to pierce through me, but his twitching lips uttered
no word, and the austere exaltation of a certitude seen in the dusk
vanished from his face. The hand that had been pointing at my
breast fell, and by-and-by, coming a step nearer, he laid it gently
on my shoulder. There were things, he said mournfully, that per-
haps could never be told, only he had lived so much alone that
sometimes he forgot -- he forgot. The light had destroyed the assur-
ance which had inspired him in the distant shadows. He sat down
and, with both elbows on the desk, rubbed his forehead. "And yet
it is true -- it is true. In the destructive element immerse." . . . He
spoke in a subdued tone, without looking at me, one hand on each
side of his face. "That was the way. To follow the dream, and again
to follow the dream -- and so -- ewig -- usque ad finem...." The
whisper of his conviction seemed to open before me a vast and
uncertain expanse, as of a crepuscular horizon on a plain at dawn --
or was it, perchance, at the coming of the night? One had not
the courage to decide; but it was a charming and deceptive light,
throwing the impalpable poesy of its dimness over pitfalls -- over
graves. His life had begun in sacrifice, in enthusiasm for generous
ideas; he had travelled very far, on various ways, on strange paths,
and whatever he followed it had been without faltering, and there-
fore without shame and without regret. In so far he was right. That
was the way, no doubt. Yet for all that, the great plain on which
men wander amongst graves and pitfalls remained very desolate
under the impalpable poesy of its crepuscular light, overshadowed
in the centre, circled with a bright edge as if surrounded by an abyss
full of flames. When at last I broke the silence it was to express the
opinion that no one could be more romantic than himself.
  'He shook his head slowly, and afterwards looked at me with a
patient and inquiring glance. It was a shame, he said. There we
were sitting and talking like two boys, instead of putting our heads
together to find something practical -- a practical remedy -- for the
evil -- for the great evil -- he repeated, with a humorous and indulgent
smile. For all that, our talk did not grow more practical. We avoided
pronouncing Jim's name as though we had tried to keep flesh and
blood out of our discussion, or he were nothing but an erring spirit,
a suffering and nameless shade. "Na!" said Stein, rising. "To-night
you sleep here, and in the morning we shall do something practical --
practical...." He lit a two-branched candlestick and led the way.
We passed through empty dark rooms, escorted by gleams from
the lights Stein carried. They glided along the waxed floors, sweep-
ing here and there over the polished surface of a table, leaped upon
a fragmentary curve of a piece of furniture, or flashed perpendicul-
arly in and out of distant mirrors, while the forms of two men and
the flicker of two flames could be seen for a moment stealing silently
across the depths of a crystalline void. He walked slowly a pace in
advance with stooping courtesy; there was a profound, as it were a
listening, quietude on his face; the long flaxen locks mixed with
white threads were scattered thinly upon his slightly bowed neck.
  ' "He is romantic -- romantic," he repeated. "And that is very
bad -- very bad.... Very good, too," he added. "But is he?" I
queried.
  ' "Gewiss," he said, and stood still holding up the candelabrum,
but without looking at me. "Evident! What is it that by inward pain
makes him know himself? What is it that for you and me makes
him -- exist?"
  'At that moment it was difficult to believe in Jim's existence --
starting from a country parsonage, blurred by crowds of men as by
clouds of dust, silenced by the clashing claims of life and death in
a material world -- but his imperishable reality came to me with a
convincing, with an irresistible force! I saw it vividly, as though in
our progress through the lofty silent rooms amongst fleeting gleams
of light and the sudden revelations of human figures stealing with
flickering flames within unfathomable and pellucid depths, we had
approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself,
floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of
mystery. "Perhaps he is," I admitted with a slight laugh, whose
unexpectedly loud reverberation made me lower my voice directly;
"but I am sure you are." With his head dropping on his breast and
the light held high he began to walk again. "Well -- I exist too," he
said.
  'He preceded me. My eyes followed his movements, but what I
did see was not the head of the firm, the welcome guest at afternoon
receptions, the correspondent of learned societies, the entertainer
of stray naturalists; I saw only the reality of his destiny, which he
had known how to follow with unfaltering footsteps, that life begun
in humble surroundings, rich in generous enthusiasms, in
friendship, love, war -- in all the exalted elements of romance. At
the door of my room he faced me. "Yes," I said, as though carrying
on a discussion, "and amongst other things you dreamed foolishly
of a certain butterfly; but when one fine morning your dream came
in your way you did not let the splendid opportunity escape. Did
you? Whereas he . . ." Stein lifted his hand. "And do you know
how many opportunities I let escape; how many dreams I had lost
that had come in my way?" He shook his head regretfully. "It seems
to me that some would have been very fine -- if I had made them
come true. Do you know how many? Perhaps I myself don't know. "
"Whether his were fine or not," I said, "he knows of one which he
certainly did not catch." "Everybody knows of one or two like
that," said Stein; "and that is the trouble -- the great trouble...."
  'He shook hands on the threshold, peered into my room under
his raised arm. "Sleep well. And to-morrow we must do something
practical -- practical...."
  'Though his own room was beyond mine I saw him return the
way he came. He was going back to his butterflies.'

                      CHAPTER 21

  'I don't suppose any of you have ever heard of Patusan?' Marlow
resumed, after a silence occupied in the careful lighting of a cigar.
'It does not matter; there's many a heavenly body in the lot crowd-
ing upon us of a night that mankind had never heard of, it being
outside the sphere of its activities and of no earthly importance to
anybody but to the astronomers who are paid to talk learnedly about
its composition, weight, path -- the irregularities of its conduct, the
aberrations of its light -- a sort of scientific scandal-mongering. Thus
with Patusan. It was referred to knowingly in the inner government
circles in Batavia, especially as to its irregularities and aberrations,
and it was known by name to some few, very few, in the mercantile
world. Nobody, however, had been there, and I suspect no one
desired to go there in person -- just as an astronomer, I should fancy,
would strongly object to being transported into a distant heavenly
body, where, parted from his earthly emoluments, he would be
bewildered by the view of an unfamiliar heaven. However, neither
heavenly bodies nor astronomers have anything to do with Patusan.
It was Jim who went there. I only meant you to understand that
had Stein arranged to send him into a star of the fifth magnitude
the change could not have been greater. He left his earthly failings
behind him and what sort of reputation he had, and there was a
totally new set of conditions for his imaginative faculty to work
upon. Entirely new, entirely remarkable. And he got hold of them
in a remarkable way.
  'Stein was the man who knew more about Patusan than anybody
else. More than was known in the government circles I suspect. I
have no doubt he had been there, either in his butterfly-hunting
days or later on, when he tried in his incorrigible way to season with
a pinch of romance the fattening dishes of his commercial kitchen.
There were very few places in the Archipelago he had not seen in
the original dusk of their being, before light (and even electric light)
had been carried into them for the sake of better morality and --
and -- well -- the greater profit too. It was at breakfast of the morning
following our talk about Jim that he mentioned the place, after
I had quoted poor Brierly's remark: "Let him creep twenty feet
underground and stay there." He looked up at me with interested
attention, as though I had been a rare insect. "This could be done
too," he remarked, sipping his coffee. "Bury him in some sort," I
explained. "One doesn't like to do it of course, but it would be the
best thing, seeing what he is." "Yes; he is young," Stein mused.
"The youngest human being now in existence," I affirmed. "Schon.
There's Patusan," he went on in the same tone.... "And the
woman is dead now," he added incomprehensibly.
  'Of course I don't know that story; I can only guess that once
before Patusan had been used as a grave for some sin, transgression,
or misfortune. It is impossible to suspect Stein. The only woman
that had ever existed for him was the Malay girl he called "My
wife the princess," or, more rarely, in moments of expansion, "the
mother of my Emma." Who was the woman he had mentioned
in connection with Patusan I can't say; but from his allusions I
understand she had been an educated and very good-looking Dutch-
Malay girl, with a tragic or perhaps only a pitiful history, whose
most painful part no doubt was her marriage with a Malacca Portu-
guese who had been clerk in some commercial house in the Dutch
colonies. I gathered from Stein that this man was an unsatisfactory
person in more ways than one, all being more or less indefinite and
offensive. It was solely for his wife's sake that Stein had appointed
him manager of Stein & Co.'s trading post in Patusan; but commer-
cially the arrangement was not a success, at any rate for the firm,
and now the woman had died, Stein was disposed to try another
agent there. The Portuguese, whose name was Cornelius, con-
sidered himself a very deserving but ill-used person, entitled by his
abilities to a better position. This man Jim would have to relieve.
"But I don't think he will go away from the place," remarked Stein.
"That has nothing to do with me. It was only for the sake of the
woman that I . . . But as I think there is a daughter left, I shall let
him, if he likes to stay, keep the old house."
  'Patusan is a remote district of a native-ruled state, and the chief
settlement bears the same name. At a point on the river about forty
miles from the sea, where the first houses come into view, there can
be seen rising above the level of the forests the summits of two steep
hills very close together, and separated by what looks like a deep
fissure, the cleavage of some mighty stroke. As a matter of fact, the
valley between is nothing but a narrow ravine; the appearance from
the settlement is of one irregularly conical hill split in two, and with
the two halves leaning slightly apart. On the third day after the full,
the moon, as seen from the open space in front of Jim's house (he
had a very fine house in the native style when I visited him), rose
exactly behind these hills, its diffused light at first throwing the two
masses into intensely black relief, and then the nearly perfect disc,
glowing ruddily, appeared, gliding upwards between the sides of
the chasm, till it floated away above the summits, as if escaping
from a yawning grave in gentle triumph. "Wonderful effect," said
Jim by my side. "Worth seeing. Is it not?"
  'And this question was put with a note of personal pride that
made me smile, as though he had had a hand in regulating that
unique spectacle. He had regulated so many things in Patusan --
things that would have appeared as much beyond his control as the
motions of the moon and the stars.
  'It was inconceivable. That was the distinctive quality of the part
into which Stein and I had tumbled him unwittingly, with no other
notion than to get him out of the way; out of his own way, be it
understood. That was our main purpose, though, I own, I might
have had another motive which had influenced me a little. I was
about to go home for a time; and it may be I desired, more than I
was aware of myself, to dispose of him -- to dispose of him, you
understand -- before I left. I was going home, and he had come to
me from there, with his miserable trouble and his shadowy claim,
like a man panting under a burden in a mist. I cannot say I had ever
seen him distinctly -- not even to this day, after I had my last view
of him; but it seemed to me that the less I understood the more I
was bound to him in the name of that doubt which is the inseparable
part of our knowledge. I did not know so much more about myself.
And then, I repeat, I was going home -- to that home distant enough
for all its hearthstones to be like one hearthstone, by which the
humblest of us has the right to sit. We wander in our thousands
over the face of the earth, the illustrious and the obscure, earning
beyond the seas our fame, our money, or only a crust of bread; but
it seems to me that for each of us going home must be like going to
render an account. We return to face our superiors, our kindred,
our friends -- those whom we obey, and those whom we love; but
even they who have neither, the most free, lonely, irresponsible and
bereft of ties, -- even those for whom home holds no dear face, no
familiar voice, -- even they have to meet the spirit that dwells within
the land, under its sky, in its air, in its valleys, and on its rises, in
its fields, in its waters and its trees -- a mute friend, judge, and
inspirer. Say what you like, to get its joy, to breathe its peace, to
face its truth, one must return with a clear conscience. All this may
seem to you sheer sentimentalism; and indeed very few of us have
the will or the capacity to look consciously under the surface of
familiar emotions. There are the girls we love, the men we look up
to, the tenderness, the friendships, the opportunities, the pleasures!
But the fact remains that you must touch your reward with clean
hands, lest it turn to dead leaves, to thorns, in your grasp. I think
it is the lonely, without a fireside or an affection they may call their
own, those who return not to a dwelling but to the land itself, to
meet its disembodied, eternal, and unchangeable spirit -- it is those
who understand best its severity, its saving power, the grace of
its secular right to our fidelity, to our obedience. Yes! few of us
understand, but we all feel it though, and I say all without excep-
tion, because those who do not feel do not count. Each blade of
grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and
so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together
with his life. I don't know how much Jim understood; but I know
he felt, he felt confusedly but powerfully, the demand of some such
truth or some such illusion -- I don't care how you call it, there is
so little difference, and the difference means so little. The thing is
that in virtue of his feeling he mattered. He would never go home
now. Not he. Never. Had he been capable of picturesque manifes-
tations he would have shuddered at the thought and made you
shudder too. But he was not of that sort, though he was expressive
enough in his way. Before the idea of going home he would grow
desperately stiff and immovable, with lowered chin and pouted lips,
and with those candid blue eyes of his glowering darkly under a
frown, as if before something unbearable, as if before something
revolting. There was imagination in that hard skull of his, over
which the thick clustering hair fitted like a cap. As to me, I have
no imagination (I would be more certain about him today, if I had),
and I do not mean to imply that I figured to myself the spirit of the
land uprising above the white cliffs of Dover, to ask me what I --
returning with no bones broken, so to speak -- had done with my
very young brother. I could not make such a mistake. I knew very
well he was of those about whom there is no inquiry; I had seen
better men go out, disappear, vanish utterly, without provoking a
sound of curiosity or sorrow. The spirit of the land, as becomes the
ruler of great enterprises, is careless of innumerable lives. Woe to
the stragglers! We exist only in so far as we hang together. He had
straggled in a way; he had not hung on; but he was aware of it with
an intensity that made him touching, just as a man's more intense
life makes his death more touching than the death of a tree. I hap-
pened to be handy, and I happened to be touched. That's all there
is to it. I was concerned as to the way he would go out. It would
have hurt me if, for instance, he had taken to drink. The earth is
so small that I was afraid of, some day, being waylaid by a blear-
eyed, swollen-faced, besmirched loafer, with no soles to his canvas
shoes, and with a flutter of rags about the elbows, who, on the
strength of old acquaintance, would ask for a loan of five dollars.
You know the awful jaunty bearing of these scarecrows coming to
you from a decent past, the rasping careless voice, the half-averted
impudent glances -- those meetings more trying to a man who
believes in the solidarity of our lives than the sight of an impenitent
death-bed to a priest. That, to tell you the truth, was the only
danger I could see for him and for me; but I also mistrusted my
want of imagination. It might even come to something worse, in
some way it was beyond my powers of fancy to foresee. He wouldn't
let me forget how imaginative he was, and your imaginative people
swing farther in any direction, as if given a longer scope of cable in
the uneasy anchorage of life. They do. They take to drink too. It
may be I was belittling him by such a fear. How could I tell? Even
Stein could say no more than that he was romantic. I only knew he
was one of us. And what business had he to be romantic? I am
telling you so much about my own instinctive feelings and bemused
reflections because there remains so little to be told of him. He
existed for me, and after all it is only through me that he exists for
you. I've led him out by the hand; I have paraded him before you.
Were my commonplace fears unjust? I won't say -- not even now.
You may be able to tell better, since the proverb has it that the
onlookers see most of the game. At any rate, they were superfluous.
He did not go out, not at all; on the contrary, he came on wonder-
fully, came on straight as a die and in excellent form, which showed
that he could stay as well as spurt. I ought to be delighted, for it is
a victory in which I had taken my part; but I am not so pleased as
I would have expected to be. I ask myself whether his rush had
really carried him out of that mist in which he loomed interesting
if not very big, with floating outlines -- a straggler yearning inconsol-
ably for his humble place in the ranks. And besides, the last word
is not said -- probably shall never be said. Are not our lives too short
for that full utterance which through all our stammerings is of
course our only and abiding intention? I have given up expecting
those last words, whose ring, if they could only be pronounced,
would shake both heaven and earth. There is never time to say our
last word -- the last word of our love, of our desire, faith, remorse,
submission, revolt. The heaven and the earth must not be shaken,
I suppose -- at least, not by us who know so many truths about
either. My last words about lim shall be few. I affirm he had
achieved greatness; but the thing would be dwarfed in the telling,
or rather in the hearing. Frankly, it is not my words that I mistrust,
but your minds. I could be eloquent were I not afraid you fellows
had starved your imaginations to feed your bodies. I do not mean
to be offensive; it is respectable to have no illusions -- and safe -- and
profitable -- and dull. Yet you too in your time must have known
the intensity of life, that light of glamour created in the shock of
trifles, as amazing as the glow of sparks struck from a cold stone --
and as short-lived, alas!'

                         CHAPTER 22

  'The conquest of love, honour, men's confidence -- the pride of
it, the power of it, are fit materials for a heroic tale; only our minds
are struck by the externals of such a success, and to Jim's successes
there were no externals. Thirty miles of forest shut it off from the
sight of an indifferent world, and the noise of the white surf along
the coast overpowered the voice of fame. The stream of civilisation,
as if divided on a headland a hundred miles north of Patusan, bran-
ches east and south-east, leaving its plains and valleys, its old trees
and its old mankind, neglected and isolated, such as an insignificant
and crumbling islet between the two branches of a mighty, devour-
ing stream. You find the name of the country pretty often in collec-
tions of old voyages. The seventeenth-century traders went there
for pepper, because the passion for pepper seemed to burn like a
flame of love in the breast of Dutch and English adventurers about
the time of James the First. Where wouldn't they go for pepper!
For a bag of pepper they would cut each other's throats without
hesitation, and would forswear their souls, of which they were so
careful otherwise: the bizarre obstinacy of that desire made them
defy death in a thousand shapes -- the unknown seas, the loathsome
and strange diseases; wounds, captivity, hunger, pestilence, and
despair. It made them great! By heavens! it made them heroic; and
it made them pathetic too in their craving for trade with the inflex-
ible death levying its toll on young and old. It seems impossible to
believe that mere greed could hold men to such a steadfastness of
purpose, to such a blind persistence in endeavour and sacrifice. And
indeed those who adventured their persons and lives risked all they
had for a slender reward. They left their bones to lie bleaching on
distant shores, so that wealth might flow to the living at home. To
us, their less tried successors, they appear magnified, not as agents
of trade but as instruments of a recorded destiny, pushing out into
the unknown in obedience to an inward voice, to an impulse beating
in the blood, to a dream of the future. They were wonderful; and
it must be owned they were ready for the wonderful. They recorded
it complacently in their sufferings, in the aspect of the seas, in the
customs of strange nations, in the glory of splendid rulers.
  'In Patusan they had found lots of pepper, and had been
impressed by the magnificence and the wisdom of the Sultan; but
somehow, after a century of chequered intercourse, the country
seems to drop gradually out of the trade. Perhaps the pepper had
given out. Be it as it may, nobody cares for it now; the glory has
departed, the Sultan is an imbecile youth with two thumbs on his
left hand and an uncertain and beggarly revenue extorted from a
miserable population and stolen from him by his many uncles.
  'This of course I have from Stein. He gave me their names and a
short sketch of the life and character of each. He was as full of
information about native states as an official report, but infinitely
more amusing. He had to know. He traded in so many, and in some
districts -- as in Patusan, for instance -- his firm was the only one to
have an agency by special permit from the Dutch authorities. The
Government trusted his discretion, and it was understood that he
took all the risks. The men he employed understood that too, but
he made it worth their while apparently. He was perfectly frank
with me over the breakfast-table in the morning. As far as he was
aware (the last news was thirteen months old, he stated precisely),
utter insecurity for life and property was the normal condition.
There were in Patusan antagonistic forces, and one of them was
Rajah Allang, the worst of the Sultan's uncles, the governor of the
river, who did the extorting and the stealing, and ground down
to the point of extinction the counuy-born Malays, who, utterly
defenceless, had not even the resource of emigrating -- "For
indeed," as Stein remarked, "where could they go, and how could
they get away?" No doubt they did not even desire to get away.
The world (which is circumscribed by lofty impassable mountains)
has been given into the hand of the high-born, and this Rajah they
knew: he was of their own royal house. I had the pleasure of meeting
the gentleman later on. He was a dirty, little, used-up old man with
evil eyes and a weak mouth, who swallowed an opium pill every
two hours, and in defiance of common decency wore his hair
uncovered and falling in wild stringy locks about his wizened grimy
face. When giving audience he would clamber upon a sort of narrow
stage erected in a hall like a ruinous barn with a rotten bamboo
floor, through the cracks of which you could see, twelve or fifteen
feet below, the heaps of refuse and garbage of all kinds lying under
the house. That is where and how he received us when,
accompanied by Jim, I paid him a visit of ceremony. There were
about forty people in the room, and perhaps three times as many
in the great courtyard below. There was constant movement, com-
ing and going, pushing and murmuring, at our backs. A few youths
in gay silks glared from the distance; the majority, slaves and hum-
ble dependants, were half naked, in ragged sarongs, dirty with
ashes and mud-stains. I had never seen Jim look so grave, so self-
possessed, in an impenetrable, impressive way. In the midst of these
dark-faced men, his stalwart figure in white apparel, the gleaming
clusters of his fair hair, seemed to catch all the sunshine that trickled
through the cracks in the closed shutters of that dim hall, with its
walls of mats and a roof of thatch. He appeared like a creature not
only of another kind but of another essence. Had they not seen him
come up in a canoe they might have thought he had descended upon
them from the clouds. He did, however, come in a crazy dug-out,
sitting (very still and with his knees together, for fear of overturning
the thing) -- sitting on a tin box -- which I had lent him -- nursing
on his lap a revolver of the Navy pattern -- presented by me on
parting -- which, through an interposition of Providence, or through
some wrong-headed notion, that was just like him, or else from
sheer instinctive sagacity, he had decided to carry unloaded. That's
how he ascended the Patusan river. Nothing could have been more
prosaic and more unsafe, more extravagantly casual, more lonely.
Strange, this fatality that would cast the complexion of a flight upon
all his acts, of impulsive unreflecting desertion of a jump into the
unknown.
  'It is precisely the casualness of it that strikes me most. Neither
Stein nor I had a clear conception of what might be on the other
side when we, metaphorically speaking, took him up and hove him
over the wall with scant ceremony. At the moment I merely wished
to achieve his disappearance; Stein characteristically enough had a
sentimental motive. He had a notion of paying off (in kind, I sup-
pose) the old debt he had never forgotten. Indeed he had been all
his life especially friendly to anybody from the British Isles. His
late benefactor, it is true, was a Scot -- even to the length of being
called Alexander McNeil -- and Jim came from a long way south of
the Tweed; but at the distance of six or seven thousand miles Great
Britain, though never diminished, looks foreshortened enough even
to its own children to rob such details of their importance. Stein
was excusable, and his hinted intentions were so generous that I
begged him most earnestly to keep them secret for a time. I felt
that no consideration of personal advantage should be allowed to
influence Jim; that not even the risk of such influence should be
run. We had to deal with another sort of reality. He wanted a refuge,
and a refuge at the cost of danger should be offered him -- nothing
more.
  'Upon every other point I was perfectly frank with him, and
I even (as I believed at the time) exaggerated the danger of the
undertaking. As a matter of fact I did not do it justice; his first day
in Patusan was nearly his last -- would have been his last if he had
not been so reckless or so hard on himself and had condescended
to load that revolver. I remember, as I unfolded our precious
scheme for his retreat, how his stubborn but weary resignation was
gradually replaced by surprise, interest, wonder, and by boyish
eagerness. This was a chance he had been dreaming of. He couldn't
think how he merited that I . . . He would be shot if he could
see to what he owed . . .And it was Stein, Stein the merchant,
who . . .but of course it was me he had to . . . I cut him short. He
was not articulate, and his gratitude caused me inexplicable pain. I
told him that if he owed this chance to any one especially, it was to
an old Scot of whom he had never heard, who had died many years
ago, of whom little was remembered besides a roaring voice and a
rough sort of honesty. There was really no one to receive his thanks.
Stein was passing on to a young man the help he had received in
his own young days, and I had done no more than to mention his
name. Upon this he coloured, and, twisting a blit of paper in his
fingers, he remarked bashfully that I had always trusted him.
  'I admitted that such was the case, and added after a pause that
I wished he had been able to follow my example. "You think I
don't?" he asked uneasily, and remarked in a mutter that one had
to get some sort of show first; then brightening up, and in a loud
voice he protested he would give me no occasion to regret my confi-
dence, which -- which . . .
  ' "Do not misapprehend," I interrupted. "It is not in your power
to make me regret anything." There would be no regrets; but if
there were, it would be altogether my own affair: an the other hand,
I wished him to understand clearly that this arrangement, this --
this -- experiment, was his own doing; he was responsible for it and
no one else. "Why? Why," he stammered, "this is the very thing
that I . . ." I begged him not to be dense, and he looked more
puzzled than ever. He was in a fair way to make life intolerable to
himself . . . "Do you think so?" he asked, disturbed; but in a
moment added confidently, "I was going on though. Was I not?"
It was impossible to be angry with him: I could not help a smile,
and told him that in the old days people who went on like this
were on the way of becoming hermits in a wilderness. "Hermits be
hanged!" he commented with engaging impulsiveness. Of course
he didn't mind a wilderness.... "I was glad of it," I said. That
was where he would be going to. He would find it lively enough, I
ventured to promise. "Yes, yes," he said keenly. He had shown a
desire, I continued inflexibly, to go out and shut the door after
him.... "Did I?" he interrupted in a strange acess of gloom that
seemed to envelop him from head to foot like the shadow of a
passing cloud. He was wonderfully expressive after all. Wonder-
fully! "Did I?" he repeated bitterly. "You can't say I made much
noise about it. And I can keep it up too -- only, confound it! you
show me a door." . . . "Very well. Pass on," I struck in. I could
make him a solemn promise that it would be shut behind him with
a vengeance. His fate, whatever it was, would be ignored, because
the country, for all its rotten state, was not judged ripe for inter-
ference. Once he got in, it would be for the outside world as though
he had never existed. He would have nothing but the soles of his
two feet to stand upon, and he would have first to find his ground
at that. "Never existed -- that's it, by love," he murmured to him-
self. His eyes, fastened upon my lips, sparkled. If he had thoroughly
understood the conditions, I concluded, he had better jump into
the first gharry he could see and drive on to Stein's house for his
final instructions. He flung out of the room before I had fairly
finished speaking.'

                     CHAPTER 23

  'He did not return till next morning. He had been kept to dinner
and for the night. There never had been such a wonderful man as
Mr. Stein. He had in his pocket a letter for Cornelius ("the Johnnie
who's going to get the sack," he explained, with a momentary drop
in his elation), and he exhibited with glee a silver ring, such
as natives use, worn down very thin and showing faint traces of
chasing.
  'This was his introduction to an old chap called Doramin -- one
of the principal men out there -- a big pot -- who had been Mr.
Stein's friend in that country where he had all these adventures.
Mr. Stein called hiM "war-comrade." War-comrade was good.
Wasn't it? And didn't Mr. Stein speak English wonderfully well?
Said he had learned it in Celebes -- of all places! That was awfully
funny. Was it not? He did speak with an accent -- a twang -- did I
notice? That chap Doramin had given him the ring. They had
exchanged presents when they parted for the last time. Sort of
promising eternal friendship. He called it fine -- did I not? They
had to make a dash for dear life out of the country when that
Mohammed -- Mohammed -- What's-his-name had been killed. I
knew the story, of course. Seemed a beastly shame, didn't it? . . .
  'He ran on like this, forgetting his plate, with a knife and fork in
hand (he had found me at tiffin), slightly flushed, and with his eyes
darkened many shades, which was with him a sign of excitement.
The ring was a sort of credential -- ("It's like something you read
of in books," he threw in appreciatively) -- and Doramin would
do his best for him. Mr. Stein had been the means of saving that
chap's life on some occasion; purely by accident, Mr. Stein had
said, but he -- Jim -- had his own opinion about that. Mr. Stein was
just the man to look out for such accidents. No matter. Accident or
purpose, this would serve his turn immensely. Hoped to goodness
the jolly old beggar had not gone off the hooks meantime. Mr. Stein
could not tell. There had been no news for more than a year; they
were kicking up no end of an all-fired row amongst themselves, and
the river was closed. Jolly awkward, this; but, no fear; he would
manage to find a crack to get in.
  'He impressed, almost frightened me with his elated rattle. He
was voluble like a youngster on the eve of a long holiday with a
prospect of delightful scrapes, and such an attitude of mind in a
grown man and in this connection had in it something phenomenal,
a little mad, dangerous, unsafe. I was on the point of entreating
him to take things seriously when he dropped his knife and fork
(he had begun eating, or rather swallowing food, as it were, uncon-
sciously), and began a search all round his plate. The ring! The
ring! Where the devil . . . Ah! Here it was . . . He closed his big
hand on it, and tried all his pockets one after another. Jove!
wouldn't do to lose the thing. He meditated gravely over his fist.
Had it? Would hang the bally affair round his neck! And he pro-
ceeded to do this immediately, producing a string (which looked
like a bit of a cotton shoe-lace) for the purpose. There! That would
do the trick! It would be the deuce if . . . He seemed to catch sight
of my face for the first time, and it steadied him a little. I probably
didn't realise, he said with a naive gravity, how much importance
he attached to that token. It meant a friend; and it is a good thing
to have a friend. He knew something about that. He nodded at me
expressively, but before my disclaiming gesture he leaned his head
on his hand and for a while sat silent, playing thoughtfully with the
bread-crumbs on the cloth . . . "Slam the door -- that was jolly well
put," he cried, and jumping up, began to pace the room, reminding
me by the set of the shoulders, the turn of his head, the headlong
and uneven stride, of that night when he had paced thus, confess-
ing, explaining -- what you will -- but, in the last instance, living --
living before me, under his own little cloud, with all his un-
conscious subtlety which could draw consolation from the very
source of sorrow. It was the same mood, the same and different,
like a fickle companion that to-day guiding you on the true path,
with the same eyes, the same step, the same impulse, to-morrow
will lead you hopelessly astray. His tread was assured, his straying,
darkened eyes seemed to search the room for something. One of his
footfalls somehow sounded louder than the other -- the fault of his
boots probably -- and gave a curious impression of an invisible halt
in his gait. One of his hands was rammed deep into his trousers'
pocket, the other waved suddenly above his head. "Slam the door!"
he shouted. "I've been waiting for that. I'll show yet . . . I'll . . .
I'm ready for any confounded thing . . . I've been dreaming of
it . . . Jove! Get out of this. Jove! This is luck at last . . . You wait.
I'll . . . "
  'He tossed his head fearlessly, and I confess that for the first and
last time in our acquaintance I perceived myself unexpectedly to be
thoroughly sick of him. Why these vapourings? He was stumping
about the room flourishing his arm absurdly, and now and then
feeling on his breast for the ring under his clothes. Where was the
sense of such exaltation in a man appointed to be a trading-clerk,
and in a place where there was no trade -- at that? Why hurl defiance
at the universe? This was not a proper frame of mind to approach
any undertaking; an improper frame of mind not only for him, I
said, but for any man. He stood still over me. Did I think so? he
asked, by no means subdued, and with a smile in which I seemed
to detect suddenly something insolent. But then I am twenty years
his senior. Youth is insolent; it is its right -- its necessity; it has got
to assert itself, and all assertion in this world of doubts is a defiance,
is an insolence. He went off into a far corner, and coming back, he,
figuratively speaking, turned to rend me. I spoke like that because
I -- even I, who had been no end kind to him -- even I remembered --
remembered -- against him -- what -- what had happened. And what
about others -- the -- the -- world? Where's the wonder he wanted to
get out, meant to get out, meant to stay out -- by heavens! And I
talked about proper frames of mind!
  ' "It is not I or the world who remember," I shouted. "It is you --
you, who remember."
  'He did not flinch, and went on with heat, "Forget everything,
everybody, everybody." . . . His voice fell. . . "But you," he
added.
  ' "Yes -- me too -- if it would help," I said, also in a low tone.
After this we remained silent and languid for a time as if exhausted.
Then he began again, composedly, and told me that Mr. Stein had
instructed him to wait for a month or so, to see whether it was
possible for him to remain, before he began building a new house
for himself, so as to avoid "vain expense." He did make use of
funny expressions -- Stein did. "Vain expense" was good.
. . . Remain? Why! of course. He would hang on. Let him only get
in - that's all; he would answer for it he would remain. Never get
out. It was easy enough to remain.
  ' "Don't be foolhardy," I said, rendered uneasy by his threaten-
ing tone. "If you only live long enough you will want to come back."
  ' "Come back to what?" he asked absently, with his eyes fixed
upon the face of a clock on the wall.
  'I was silent for a while. "Is it to be never, then?" I said. "Never,"
he repeated dreamily without looking at me, and then flew into
sudden activity. "Jove! Two o'clock, and I sail at four!"
  'It was true. A brigantine of Stein's was leaving for the westward
that afternoon, and he had been instructed to take his passage in
her, only no orders to delay the sailing had been given. I suppose
Stein forgot. He made a rush to get his things while I went aboard
my ship, where he promised to call on his way to the outer road-
stead. He turned up accordingly in a great hurry and with a small
leather valise in his hand. This wouldn't do, and I offered him an
old tin trunk of mine supposed to be water-tight, or at least damp-
tight. He effected the transfer by the simple process of shooting out
the contents of his valise as you would empty a sack of wheat. I saw
three books in the tumble; two small, in dark covers, and a thick
green-and-gold volume -- a half-crown complete Shakespeare. "You
read this?" I asked. "Yes. Best thing to cheer up a fellow," he said
hastily. I was struck by this appreciation, but there was no time
for Shakespearian talk. A heavy revolver and two small boxes of
cartridges were lying on the cuddy-table. "Pray take this," I said.
"It may help you to remain." No sooner were these words out of
my mouth than I perceived what grim meaning they could bear.
"May help you to get in," I corrected myself remorsefully. He
however was not troubled by obscure meanings; he thanked me
effusively and bolted out, calling Good-bye over his shoulder. I
heard his voice through the ship's side urging his boatmen to give
way, and looking out of the stern-port I saw the boat rounding
under the counter. He sat in her leaning forward, exciting his men
with voice and gestures; and as he had kept the revolver in his hand
and seemed to be presenting it at their heads, I shall never forget
the scared faces of the four Javanese, and the frantic swing of their
stroke which snatched that vision from under my eyes. Then turn-
ing away, the first thing I saw were the two boxes of cartridges on
the cuddy-table. He had forgotten to take them.
  'I ordered my gig manned at once; but Jim's rowers, under the
impression that their lives hung on a thread while they had that
madman in the boat, made such excellent time that before I had
traversed half the distance between the two vessels I caught sight
of him clambering over the rail, and of his box being passed up. All
the brigantine's canvas was loose, her mainsail was set, and the
windlass was just beginning to clink as I stepped upon her deck:
her master, a dapper little half-caste of forty or so, in a blue flannel
suit, with lively eyes, his round face the colour of lemon-peel, and
with a thin little black moustache drooping on each side of his thick,
dark lips, came forward smirking. He turned out, notwithstanding
his self-satisfied and cheery exterior, to be of a careworn tempera-
ment. In answer to a remark of mine (while Jim had gone below for
a moment) he said, "Oh yes. Patusan." He was going to carry the
gentleman to the mouth of the river, but would "never ascend. " His
flowing English seemed to be derived from a dictionary compiled by
a lunatic. Had Mr. Stein desired him to "ascend," he would have
"reverentially" -- (I think he wanted to say respectfully -- but devil
only knows) -- "reverentially made objects for the safety of proper-
ties." If disregarded, he would have presented "resignation to
quit." Twelve months ago he had made his last voyage there, and
though Mr. Cornelius "propitiated many offertories" to Mr. Rajah
Allang and the "principal populations," on conditions which made
the trade "a snare and ashes in the mouth," yet his ship had been
fired upon from the woods by "irresponsive parties" all the way
down the river; which causing his crew "from exposure to limb to
remain silent in hidings," the brigantine was nearly stranded on a
sandbank at the bar, where she "would have been perishable
beyond the act of man." The angry disgust at the recollection, the
pride of his fluency, to which he turned an attentive ear, struggled
for the possession of his broad simple face. He scowled and beamed
at me, and watched with satisfaction the undeniable effect of his
phraseology. Dark frowns ran swiftly over the placid sea, and the
brigantine, with her fore-topsail to the mast and her main-boom
amidships, seemed bewildered amongst the cat's-paws. He told me
further, gnashing his teeth, that the Rajah was a "laughable hyaena"
(can't imagine how he got hold of hyaenas); while somebody else
was many times falser than the "weapons of a crocodile." Keeping
one eye on the movements of his crew forward, he let loose his
volubility -- comparing the place to a "cage of beasts made ravenous
by long impenitence." I fancy he meant impunity. He had no
intention, he cried, to "exhibit himself to be made attached pur-
posefully to robbery." The long-drawn wails, giving the time for
the pull of the men catting the anchor, came to an end, and he
lowered his voice. "Plenty too much enough of Patusan," he con-
cluded, with energy.
  'I heard afterwards he had been so indiscreet as to get himself
tied up by the neck with a rattan halter to a post planted in the
middle of a mud-hole before the Rajah's house. He spent the best
part of a day and a whole night in that unwholesome situation, but
there is every reason to believe the thing had been meant as a sort
of joke. He brooded for a while over that horrid memory, I suppose,
and then addressed in a quarrelsome tone the man coming aft to
the helm. When he turned to me again it was to speak judicially,
without passion. He would take the gentleman to the mouth of the
river at Batu Kring (Patusan town "being situated internally," he
remarked, "thirty miles"). But in his eyes, he continued -- a tone
of bored, weary conviction replacing his previous voluble delivery --
the gentleman was already "in the similitude of a corpse." "What?
What do you say?" I asked. He assumed a startlingly ferocious
demeanour, and imitated to perfection the act of stabbing from
behind. "Already like the body of one deported," he explained,
with the insufferably conceited air of his kind after what they
imagine a display of cleverness. Behind him I perceived Jim smiling
silendy at me, and with a raised hand checking the exclamation on
my lips.
  'Then, while the half-caste, bursting with importance, shouted
his orders, while the yards swung creaking and the heavy boom
came surging over, Jim and I, alone as it were, to leeward of the
mainsail, clasped each other's hands and exchanged the last hurried
words. My heart was freed from that dull resentment which had
existed side by side with interest in his fate. The absurd chatter of
the half-caste had given more reality to the miserable dangers of his
path than Stein's careful statements. On that occasion the sort of
formality that had been always present in our intercourse vanished
from our speech; I believe I called him "dear boy," and he tacked
on the words "old man" to some half-uttered expression of grati-
tude, as though his risk set off against my years had made us more
equal in age and in feeling. There was a moment of real and pro-
found intimacy, unexpected and short-lived like a glimpse of some
everlasting, of some saving truth. He exerted himself to soothe me
as though he had been the more mature of the two. "All right, all
right," he said rapidly and with feeling. "I promise to take care of
myself. Yes; I won't take any risks. Not a single blessed risk. Of
course not. I mean to hang out. Don't you worry. Jove! I feel as if
nothing could touch me. Why! this is luck from the word Go.
I wouldn't spoil such a magnificent chance!" . . . A magnificent
chance! Well, it was magnificent, but chances are what men make
them, and how was I to know? As he had said, even I -- even I
remembered -- his -- his misfortune against him. It was true. And
the best thing for him was to go.
  'My gig had dropped in the wake of the brigantine, and I saw
him aft detached upon the light of the westering sun, raising his
cap high above his head. I heard an indistinct shout, "You -- shall --
hear -- of -- me." Of me, or from me, I don't know which. I think
it must have been of me. My eyes were too dazzled by the glitter of
the sea below his feet to see him clearly; I am fated never to see him
clearly; but I can assure you no man could have appeared less "in
the similitude of a corpse," as that half-caste croaker had put it. I
could see the little wretch's face, the shape and colour of a ripe
pumpkin, poked out somewhere under Jim's elbow. He too raised
his arm as if for a downward thrust. Absit omen!'

                         CHAPTER 24

  'The coast of Patusan (I saw it nearly two years afterwards) is
straight and sombre, and faces a misty ocean. Red trails are seen
like cataracts of rust streaming under the dark-green foliage of
bushes and creepers clothing the low cliffs. Swampy plains open
out at the mouth of rivers, with a view of jagged blue peaks beyond
the vast forests. In the offing a chain of islands, dark, crumbling
shapes, stand out in the everlasting sunlit haze like the remnants of
a wall breached by the sea.
  'There is a village of fisher-folk at the mouth of the Batu Kring
branch of the estuary. The river, which had been closed so long, was
open then, and Stein's little schooner, in which I had my passage,
worked her way up in three tides without being exposed to a fusil-
lade from "irresponsive parties." Such a state of affairs belonged
already to ancient history, if I could believe the elderly headman of
the fishing village, who came on board to act as a sort of pilot.
He talked to me (the second white man he had ever seen) with
confidence, and most of his talk was about the first white man he
had ever seen. He called him Tuan Jim and the tone of his refer-
ences was made remarkable by a strange mixture of familiarity and
awe. They, in the village, were under that lord's special protection,
which showed that Jim bore no grudge. If he had warned me that
I would hear of him it was perfectly true. I was hearing of him.
There was already a story that the tide had turned two hours before
its time to help him on his journey up the river. The talkative
old man himself had steered the canoe and had marvelled at the
phenomenon. Moreover, all the glory was in his family. His son
and his son-in-law had paddled; but they were only youths without
experience, who did not notice the speed of the canoe till he pointed
out to them the amazing fact.
  'Jim's coming to that fishing village was a blessing; but to them,
as to many of us, the blessing came heralded by terrors. So many
generations had been released since the last white man had visited
the river that the very tradition had been lost. The appearance of
the being that descended upon them and demanded inflexibly to be
taken up to Patusan was discomposing; his insistence was alarming;
his generosity more than suspicious. It was an unheard-of request.
There was no precedent. What would the Rajah say to this? What
would he do to them? The best part of the night was spent in
consultation; but the immediate risk from the anger of that strange
man seemed so great that at last a cranky dug-out was got ready.
The women shrieked with grief as it put off. A fearless old hag
cursed the stranger.
  'He sat in it, as I've told you, on his tin box, nursing the unloaded
revolver on his lap. He sat with precaution -- than which there is
nothing more fatiguing -- and thus entered the land he was destined
to fill with the fame of his virtues, from the blue peaks inland to
the white ribbon of surf on the coast. At the first bend he lost sight
of the sea with its labouring waves for ever rising, sinking, and
vanishing to rise again -- the very image of struggling mankind --
and faced the immovable forests rooted deep in the soil, soaring
towards the sunshine, everlasting in the shadowy might of their
tradition, like life itself. And his opportunity sat veiled by his side
like an Eastern bride waiting to be uncovered by the hand of the
master. He too was the heir of a shadowy and mighty tradition! He
told me, however, that he had never in his life felt so depressed and
tired as in that canoe. All the movement he dared to allow himself
was to reach, as it were by stealth, after the shell of half a cocoa-nut
floating between his shoes, and bale some of the water out with a
carefully restrained action. He discovered how hard the lid of a
block-tin case was to sit upon. He had heroic health; but several
times during that journey he experienced fits of giddiness, and
between whiles he speculated hazily as to the size of the blister the
sun was raising on his back. For amusement he tried by looking
ahead to decide whether the muddy object he saw lying on the
water's edge was a log of wood or an alligator. Only very soon he
had to give that up. No fun in it. Always alligator. One of them
flopped into the river and all but capsized the canoe. But this excite-
ment was over directly. Then in a long empty reach he was very
grateful to a troop of monkeys who came right down on the bank
and made an insulting hullabaloo on his passage. Such was the way
in which he was approaching greatness as genuine as any man ever
achieved. Principally, he longed for sunset; and meantime his three
paddlers were preparing to put into execution their plan of deliver-
ing him up to the Rajah.
  ' "I suppose I must have been stupid with fatigue, or perhaps I
did doze off for a time," he said. The first thing he knew was his
canoe coming to the bank. He became instantaneously aware of the
forest having been left behind, of the first houses being visible
higher up, of a stockade on his left, and of his boatmen leaping
out together upon a low point of land and taking to their heels.
Instinctively he leaped out after them. At first he thought himself
deserted for some inconceivable reason, but he heard excited
shouts, a gate swung open, and a lot of people poured out, making
towards him. At the same time a boat full of armed men appeared
on the river and came alongside his empty canoe, thus shutting off
his retreat.
  ' "I was too startled to be quite cool -- don't you know? and if
that revolver had been loaded I would have shot somebody -- per-
haps two, three bodies, and that would have been the end of me.
But it wasn't...." "Why not?" I asked. "Well, I couldn't fight
the whole population, and I wasn't coming to them as if I were
afraid of my life," he said, with just a faint hint of his stubborn
sulkiness in the glance he gave me. I refrained from pointing out to
him that they could not have known the chambers were actually
empty. He had to satisfy himself in his own way.... "Anyhow it
wasn't," he repeated good-humouredly, "and so I just stood still
and asked them what was the matter. That seemed to strike them
dumb. I saw some of these thieves going off with my box. That
long-legged old scoundrel Kassim (I'll show him to you to-morrow)
ran out fussing to me about the Rajah wanting to see me. I said,
'All right.' I too wanted to see the Rajah, and I simply walked in
through the gate and -- and -- here I am." He laughed, and then
with unexpected emphasis, "And do you know what's the best in
it?" he asked. "I'll tell you. It's the knowledge that had I been
wiped out it is this place that would have been the loser."
  'He spoke thus to me before his house on that evening I've men-
tioned -- after we had watched the moon float away above the chasm
between the hills like an ascending spirit out of a grave; its sheen
descended, cold and pale, like the ghost of dead sunlight. There is
something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispas-
sionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceiv-
able mystery. It is to our sunshine, which -- say what you like -- is
all we have to live by, what the echo is to the sound: misleading and
confusing whether the note be mocking or sad. It robs all forms of
matter -- which, after all, is our domain -- of their substance, and
gives a sinister reality to shadows alone. And the shadows were very
real around us, but Jim by my side looked very stalwart, as though
nothing -- not even the occult power of moonlight -- could rob him
of his reality in my eyes. Perhaps, indeed, nothing could touch him
since he had survived the assault of the dark powers. All was silent,
all was still; even on the river the moonbeams slept as on a pool.
It was the moment of high water, a moment of immobility that
accentuated the utter isolation of this lost corner of the earth. The
houses crowding along the wide shining sweep without ripple or
glitter, stepping into the water in a line of jostling, vague, grey,
silvery forms mingled with black masses of shadow, were like a
spectral herd of shapeless creatures pressing forward to drink in a
spectral and lifeless stream. Here and there a red gleam twinkled
within the bamboo walls, warm, like a living spark, significant of
human affections, of shelter, of repose.
  'He confessed to me that he often watched these tiny warm gleams
go out one by one, that he loved to see people go to sleep under his
eyes, confident in the security of to-morrow. "Peaceful here, eh?"
he asked. He was not eloquent, but there was a deep meaning in
the words that followed. "Look at these houses; there's not one
where I am not trusted. Jove! I told you I would hang on. Ask
any man, woman, or child . . ." He paused. "Well, I am all right
anyhow."
  'I observed quickly that he had found that out in the end. I had
been sure of it, I added. He shook his head. "Were you?" He
pressed my arm lightly above the elbow. "Well, then -- you were
right."
  'There was elation and pride, there was awe almost, in that low
exclamation. "Jove!" he cried, "only think what it is to me." Again
he pressed my arm. "And you asked me whether I thought of
leaving. Good God! I! want to leave! Especially now after what you
told me of Mr. Stein's . . . Leave! Why! That's what I was afraid
of. It would have been -- it would have been harder than dying.
No -- on my word. Don't laugh. I must feel -- every day, every time
I open my eyes -- that I am trusted -- that nobody has a right -- don't
you know? Leave! For where? What for? To get what?"
  'I had told him (indeed it was the main object of my visit) that it
was Stein's intention to present him at once with the house and the
stock of trading goods, on certain easy conditions which would
make the transaction perfectly regular and valid. He began to snort
and plunge at first. "Confound your delicacy!" I shouted. "It isn't
Stein at all. It's giving you what you had made for yourself. And in
any case keep your remarks for McNeil -- when you meet him in
the other world. I hope it won't happen soon...." He had to give
in to my arguments, because all his conquests, the trust, the fame,
the friendships, the love -- all these things that made him master
had made him a captive too. He looked with an owner's eye at the
peace of the evening, at the river, at the houses, at the everlasting
life of the forests, at the life of the old mankind, at the secrets of
the land, at the pride of his own heart; but it was they that possessed
him and made him their own to the innermost thought, to the
slightest stir of blood, to his last breath.
  'It was something to be proud of. I too was proud -- for him, if
not so certain of the fabulous value of the bargain. It was wonderful.
It was not so much of his fearlessness that I thought. It is strange
how little account I took of it: as if it had been something too
conventional to be at the root of the matter. No. I was more struck
by the other gifts he had displayed. He had proved his grasp of
the unfamiliar situation, his intellectual alertness in that field of
thought. There was his readiness too! Amazing. And all this had
come to him in a manner like keen scent to a well-bred hound. He
was not eloquent, but there was a dignity in this constitutional
reticence, there was a high seriousness in his stammerings. He had
still his old trick of stubborn blushing. Now and then, though, a
word, a sentence, would escape him that showed how deeply, how
solemnly, he felt about that work which had given him the certitude
of rehabilitation. That is why he seemed to love the land and the
people with a sort of fierce egoism, with a contemptuous tender-
ness.'

                        CHAPTER 25

  ' "This is where I was prisoner for three days," he murmured to
me (it was on the occasion of our visit to the Rajah), while we
were making our way slowly through a kind of awestruck riot of
dependants across Tunku Allang's courtyard. "Filthy place, isn't
it? And I couldn't get anything to eat either, unless I made a row
about it, and then it was only a small plate of rice and a fried fish
not much bigger than a stickleback -- confound them! Jove! I've
been hungry prowling inside this stinking enclosure with some of
these vagabonds shoving their mugs right under my nose. I had
given up that famous revolver of yours at the first demand. Glad to
get rid of the bally thing. Looked like a fool walking about with an
empty shooting-iron in my hand." At that moment we came into
the presence, and he became unflinchingly grave and complimen-
tary with his late captor. Oh! magnificent! I want to laugh when I
think of it. But I was impressed too. The old disreputable Tunku
Allang could not help showing his fear (he was no hero, for all the
tales of his hot youth he was fond of telling); and at the same time
there was a wistful confidence in his manner towards his late pris-
oner. Note! Even where he would be most hated he was still trusted.
Jim -- as far as I could follow the conversation -- was improving the
occasion by the delivery of a lecture. Some poor villagers had been
waylaid and robbed while on their way to Doramin's house with a
few pieces of gum or beeswax which they wished to exchange for
rice. "It was Doramin who was a thief," burst out the Rajah. A
shaking fury seemed to enter that old frail body. He writhed weirdly
on his mat, gesticulating with his hands and feet, tossing the tangled
strings of his mop -- an impotent incarnation of rage. There were
staring eyes and dropping jaws all around us. Jim began to speak.
Resolutely, coolly, and for some time he enlarged upon the text that
no man should be prevented from getting his food and his children's
food honestly. The other sat like a tailor at his board, one palm on
each knee, his head low, and fixing Jim through the grey hair that
fell over his very eyes. When Jim had done there was a great still-
ness. Nobody seemed to breathe even; no one made a sound till the
old Rajah sighed faintly, and looking up, with a toss of his head,
said quickly, "You hear, my people! No more of these little
games." This decree was received in profound silence. A rather
heavy man, evidently in a position of confidence, with intelligent
eyes, a bony, broad, very dark face, and a cheerily of ficious manner
(I learned later on he was the executioner), presented to us two cups
of coffee on a brass tray, which he took from the hands of an inferior
attendant. "You needn't drink," muttered Jim very rapidly. I
didn't perceive the meaning at first, and only looked at him. He
took a good sip and sat composedly, holding the saucer in his left
hand. In a moment I felt excessively annoyed. "Why the devil," I
whispered, smiling at him amiably, "do you expose me to such a
stupid risk?" I drank, of course, there was nothing for it, while he
gave no sign, and almost immediately afterwards we took our leave.
While we were going down the courtyard to our boat, escorted by
the intelligent and cheery executioner, Jim said he was very sorry.
It was the barest chance, of course. Personally he thought nothing
of poison. The remotest chance. He was -- he assured me -- con-
sidered to be infinitely more useful than dangerous, and so . . .
"But the Rajah is afraid of you abominably. Anybody can see that,"
I argued with, I own, a certain peevishness, and all the time watch-
ing anxiously for the first twist of some sort of ghastly colic. I was
awfully disgusted. "If I am to do any good here and preserve my
position," he said, taking his seat by my side in the boat, "I must
stand the risk: I take it once every month, at least. Many people
trust me to do that -- for them. Afraid of me! That's just it. Most
likely he is afraid of me because I am not afraid of his coffee." Then
showing me a place on the north front of the stockade where the
pointed tops of several stakes were broken, "This is where I leaped
over on my third day in Patusan. They haven't put new stakes there
yet. Good leap, eh?" A moment later we passed the mouth of a
muddy creek. "This is my second leap. I had a bit of a run and
took this one flying, but fell short. Thought I would leave my skin
there. Lost my shoes struggling. And all the time I was thinking to
myself how beastly it would be to get a jab with a bally long spear
while sticking in the mud like this. I remember how sick I felt
wriggling in that slime. I mean really sick -- as if I had bitten some-
thing rotten."
  'That's how it was -- and the opportunity ran by his side, leaped
over the gap, floundered in the mud . . . still veiled. The unexpect-
edness of his coming was the only thing, you understand, that saved
him from being at once dispatched with krisses and flung into the
river. They had him, but it was like getting hold of an apparition,
a wraith, a portent. What did it mean? What to do with it? Was it
too late to conciliate him? Hadn't he better be killed without more
delay? But what would happen then? Wretched old Allang went
nearly mad with apprehension and through the difficulty of making
up his mind. Several times the council was broken up, and the
advisers made a break helter-skelter for the door and out on to the
verandah. One -- it is said -- even jumped down to the ground --
fifteen feet, I should judge -- and broke his leg. The royai governor
of Patusan had bizarre mannerisms, and one of them was to intro-
duce boastful rhapsodies into every arduous discussion, when, get-
ting gradually excited, he would end by flying off his perch with a
kriss in his hand. But, barring such interruptions, the deliberations
upon Jim's fate went on night and day.
  'Meanwhile he wandered about the courtyard, shunned by some,
glared at by others, but watched by all, and practically at the mercy
of the first casuai ragamuffin with a chopper, in there. He took
possession of a small tumble-down shed to sleep in; the effluvia of
filth and rotten matter incommoded him greatly: it seems he had
not lost his appetite though, because -- he told me -- he had been
hungry all the blessed time. Now and again "some fussy ass"
deputed from the council-room would come out running to him,
and in honeyed tones would administer amazing interrogatories:
"Were the Dutch coming to take the country? Would the white
man like to go back down the river? What was the object of coming
to such a miserable country? The Rajah wanted to know whether
the white man could repair a watch?" They did actually bring out
to him a nickel clock of New England make, and out of sheer
unbearable boredom he busied himseif in trying to get the alarum
to work. It was apparently when thus occupied in his shed that the
true perception of his extreme peril dawned upon him. He dropped
the thing -- he says -- "like a hot potato," and walked out hastily,
without the slightest idea of what he would, or indeed could, do. He
only knew that the position was intolerable. He strolled aimlessly
beyond a sort of ramshackle little granary on posts, and his eyes fell
on the broken stakes of the palisade; and then -- he says -- at once,
without any mental process as it were, without any stir of emotion,
he set about his escape as if executing a plan matured for a month.
He walked off carelessly to give himself a good run, and when
he faced about there was some dignitary, with two spearmen in
attendance, close at his elbow ready with a question. He started off
"from under his very nose," went over "like a bird," and landed
on the other side with a fall that jarred all his bones and seemed to
split his head. He picked himself up instantly. He never thought of
anything at the time; all he could remember -- he said -- was a great
yell; the first houses of Patusan were before him four hundred yards
away; he saw the creek, and as it were mechanically put on more
pace. The earth seemed fairly to fly backwards under his feet. He
took off from the last dry spot, felt himseif flying through the air,
felt himself, without any shock, planted upright in an extremely
soft and sticky mudbank. It was only when he tried to move his
legs and found he couldn't that, in his own words, "he came to
himself." He began to think of the "bally long spears." As a matter
of fact, considering that the people inside the stockade had to run
to the gate, then get down to the landing-place, get into boats, and
pull round a point of land, he had more advance than he imagined.
Besides, it being low water, the creek was without water -- you
couldn't call it dry -- and practically he was safe for a time from
everything but a very long shot perhaps. The higher firm ground
was about six feet in front of him. "I thought I would have to die
there all the same," he said. He reached and grabbed desperately
with his hands, and only succeeded in gathering a horrible cold
shiny heap of slime against his breast -- up to his very chin. It seemed
to him he was burying himself alive, and then he struck out madly,
scattering the mud with his fists. It fell on his head, on his face,
over his eyes, into his mouth. He told me that he remembered
suddenly the courtyard, as you remember a place where you had
been very happy years ago. He longed -- so he said -- to be back
there again, mending the clock. Mending the clock -- that was the
idea. He made efforts, tremendous sobbing, gasping efforts, efforts
that seemed to burst his eyeballs in their sockets and make him
blind, and culminating into one mighty supreme effort in the dark-
ness to crack the earth asunder, to throw it off his limbs -- and he
felt himself creeping feebly up the bank. He lay full length on the
firm ground and saw the light, the sky. Then as a sort of happy
thought the notion came to him that he would go to sleep. He will
have it that he did actually go to sleep; that he slept -- perhaps for a
minute, perhaps for twenty seconds, or only for one second, but he
recollects distinctly the violent convulsive start of awakening. He
remained lying still for a while, and then he arose muddy from
head to foot and stood there, thinking he was alone of his kind for
hundreds of miles, alone, with no help, no sympathy, no pity to
expect from any one, like a hunted animal. The first houses were
not more than twenty yards from him; and it was the desperate
screaming of a frightened woman trying to carry off a child that
started him again. He pelted straight on in his socks, beplastered
with filth out of all semblance to a human being. He traversed more
than half the length of the settlement. The nimbler women fled
right and left, the slower men just dropped whatever they had in
their hands, and remained petrified with dropping jaws. He was a
flying terror. He says he noticed the little children trying to run for
life, falling on their little stomachs and kicking. He swerved
between two houses up a slope, clambered in desperation over a
barricade of felled trees (there wasn't a week without some fight in
Patusan at that time), burst through a fence into a maize-patch,
where a scared boy flung a stick at him, blundered upon a path,
and ran all at once into the arms of several startled men. He just had
breath enough to gasp out, "Doramin! Doramin!" He remembers
being half-carried, half-rushed to the top of the slope, and in a vast
enclosure with palms and fruit trees being run up to a large man
sitting massively in a chair in the midst of the greatest possible
commotion and excitement. He fumbled in mud and clothes to
produce the ring, and, finding himseif suddenly on his back, won-
dered who had knocked him down. They had simply let him go --
don't you know? -- but he couldn't stand. At the foot of the slope
random shots were fired, and above the roofs of the settlement there
rose a dull roar of amazement. But he was safe. Doramin's people
were barricading the gate and pouring water down his throat; Dora-
min's old wife, full of business and commiseration, was issuing
shrill orders to her girls. "The old woman," he said softly, "made
a to-do over me as if I had been her own son. They put me into an
immense bed -- her state bed -- and she ran in and out wiping her
eyes to give me pats on the back. I must have been a pitiful object.
I just lay there like a log for I don't know how long."
  'He seemed to have a great liking for Doramin's old wife. She on
her side had taken a motherly fancy to him. She had a round, nut-
brown, soft face, all fine wrinkles, large, bright red lips (she chewed
betel assiduously), and screwed up, winking, benevolent eyes. She
was constantly in movement, scolding busily and ordering unceas-
ingly a troop of young women with clear brown faces and big grave
eyes, her daughters, her servants, her slave-girls. You know how it
is in these households: it's generally impossible to tell the differ-
ence. She was very spare, and even her ample outer garment, fast-
ened in front with jewelled clasps, had somehow a skimpy effect.
Her dark bare feet were thrust into yellow straw slippers of Chinese
make. I have seen her myself flitting about with her extremely thick,
long, grey hair falling about her shoulders. She uttered homely
shrewd sayings, was of noble birth, and was eccentric and arbitrary.
In the afternoon she would sit in a very roomy arm-chair, opposite
her husband, gazing steadily through a wide opening in the wall
which gave an extensive view of the settlement and the river.
  'She invariably tucked up her feet under her, but old Doramin
sat squarely, sat imposingly as a mountain sits on a plain. He was
only of the nakhoda or merchant class, but the respect shown to
him and the dignity of his bearing were very striking. He was the
chief of the second power in Patusan. The immigrants from Celebes
(about sixty families that, with dependants and so on, could muster
some two hundred men "wearing the kriss") had elected him years
ago for their head. The men of that race are intelligent, enterprising,
revengeful, but with a more frank courage than the other Malays,
and restless under oppression. They formed the party opposed to
the Rajah. Of course the quarrels were for trade. This was the
primary cause of faction fights, of the sudden outbreaks that would
fill this or that part of the settlement with smoke, flame, the noise
of shots and shrieks. Villages were burnt, men were dragged into
the Rajah's stockade to be killed or tortured for the crime of trading
with anybody else but himself. Only a day or two before Jim's
arrival several heads of households in the very fishing village that
was afterwards taken under his especial protection had been driven
over the cliffs by a party of the Rajah's spearmen, on suspicion of
having been collecting edible birds' nests for a Celebes trader. Rajah
Allang pretended to be the only trader in his country, and the
penalty for the breach of the monopoly was death; but his idea of
trading was indistinguishable from the commonest forms of rob-
bery. His cruelty and rapacity had no other bounds than his coward-
ice, and he was afraid of the organised power of the Celebes men,
only -- till Jim came -- he was not afraid enough to keep quiet. He
struck at them through his subjects, and thought himself patheti-
cally in the right. The situation was complicated by a wandering
stranger, an Arab half-breed, who, I believe, on purely religious
grounds, had incited the tribes in the interior (the bush-folk, as Jim
himself called them) to rise, and had established himself in a forti-
fied camp on the summit of one of the twin hills. He hung over the
town of Patusan like a hawk over a poultry-yard, but he devastated
the open country. Whole villages, deserted, rotted on their black-
ened posts over the banks of clear streams, dropping piecemeal into
the water the grass of their walls, the leaves of their roofs, with a
curious effect of natural decay as if they had been a form of veg-
etation stricken by a blight at its very root. The two parties in
Patusan were not sure which one this partisan most desired to plun-
der. The Rajah intrigued with him feebly. Some of the Bugis set-
tlers, weary with endless insecurity, were half inclined to call him
in. The younger spirits amongst them, chaffing, advised to "get
Sherif Ali with his wild men and drive the Rajah Allang out of
the country." Doramin restrained them with difficulty. He was
growing old, and, though his influence had not diminished, the
situation was getting beyond him. This was the state of affairs when
Jim, bolting from the Rajah's stockade, appeared before the chief
of the Bugis, produced the ring, and was received, in a manner of
speaking, into the heart of the community.'

                        CHAPTER 26

  'Doramin was one of the most remarkable men of his race I had
ever seen. His bulk for a Malay was immense, but he did not look
merely fat; he looked imposing, monumental. This motionless
body, clad in rich stuffs, coloured silks, gold embroideries; this
huge head, enfolded in a red-and-gold headkerchief; the flat, big,
round face, wrinkled, furrowed, with two semicircular heavy folds
starting on each side of wide, fierce nostrils, and enclosing a thick-
lipped mouth; the throat like a bull; the vast corrugated brow over-
hanging the staring proud eyes -- made a whole that, once seen, can
never be forgotten. His impassive repose (he seldom stirred a limb
when once he sat down) was like a display of dignity. He was never
known to raise his voice. It was a hoarse and powerful murmur,
slightly veiled as if heard from a distance. When he walked, two
short, sturdy young fellows, naked to the waist, in white sarongs
and with black skull-caps on the backs of their heads, sustained his
elbows; they would ease him down and stand behind his chair till
he wanted to rise, when he would turn his head slowly, as if with
difficulty, to the right and to the left, and then they would catch
him under his armpits and help him up. For all that, there was
nothing of a cripple about him: on the contrary, all his ponderous
movements were like manifestations of a mighty deliberate force.
It was generally believed he consulted his wife as to public affairs;
but nobody, as far as I know, had ever heard them exchange a single
word. When they sat in state by the wide opening it was in silence.
They could see below them in the declining light the vast expanse
of the forest country, a dark sleeping sea of sombre green undulating
as far as the violet and purple range of mountains; the shining
sinuosity of the river like an immense letter S of beaten silver;
the brown ribbon of houses following the sweep of both banks,
overtopped by the twin hills uprising above the nearer tree-tops.
They were wonderfully contrasted: she, light, delicate, spare,
quick, a little witch-like, with a touch of motherly fussiness in her
repose; he, facing her, immense and heavy, like a figure of a man
roughly fashioned of stone, with something magnanimous and ruth-
less in his immobility. The son of these old people was a most
distinguished youth.
  'They had him late in life. Perhaps he was not really so young as
he looked. Four- or five-and-twenty is not so young when a man is
already father of a family at eighteen. When he entered the large
room, lined and carpeted with fine mats, and with a high ceiling of
white sheeting, where the couple sat in state surrounded by a most
deferential retinue, he would make his way straight to Doramin, to
kiss his hand -- which the other abandoned to him, majestically --
and then would step across to stand by his mother's chair. I suppose
I may say they idolised him, but I never caught them giving him an
overt glance. Those, it is true, were public functions. The room was
generally thronged. The solemn formality of greetings and leave-
takings, the profound respect expressed in gestures, on the faces,
in the low whispers, is simply indescribable. "It's well worth see-
ing," Jim had assured me while we were crossing the river, on our
way back. "They are like people in a book, aren't they?" he said
triumphantly. "And Dain Waris -- their son -- is the best friend
(barring you) I ever had. What Mr. Stein would call a good 'war-
comrade.' I was in luck. Jove! I was in luck when I tumbled amongst
them at my last gasp." He meditated with bowed head, then rousing
himself he added --
  ' "Of course I didn't go to sleep over it, but . . ." He paused
again. "It seemed to come to me," he murmured. "All at once I
saw what I had to do . . ."
  'There was no doubt that it had come to him; and it had come
through war, too, as is natural, since this power that came to him
was the power to make peace. It is in this sense alone that mught so
often is right. You must not think he had seen his way at once.
When he arrived the Bugis community was in a most critical posi-
tion. "They were all afraid," he said to me -- "each man afraid for
himself; while I could see as plain as possible that they must do
something at once, if they did not want to go under one after
another, what between the Rajah and that vagabond Sherif." But
to see that was nothing. When he got his idea he had to drive it into
reluctant minds, through the bulwarks of fear, of selfishness. He
drove it in at last. And that was nothing. He had to devise the
means. He devised them -- an audacious plan; and his task was only
half done. He had to inspire with his own confidence a lot of people
who had hidden and absurd reasons to hang back; he had to concili-
ate imbecile jealousies, and argue away all sorts of senseless mis-
trusts. Without the weight of Doramin's authority, and his son's
fiery enthusiasm, he would have failed. Dain Waris, the dis-
tinguished youth, was the first to believe in him; theirs was one of
those strange, profound, rare friendships between brown and
white, in which the very difference of race seems to draw two human
beings closer by some mystic element of sympathy. Of Dain Waris,
his own people said with pride that he knew how to fight like a
white man. This was true; he had that sort of courage -- the courage
in the open, I may say -- but he had also a European mind. You
meet them sometimes like that, and are surprised to discover unex-
pectedly a familiar turn of thought, an unobscured vision, a tenacity
of purpose, a touch of altruism. Of small stature, but admirably
well proportioned, Dain Waris had a proud carriage, a polished,
easy bearing, a temperament like a clear flame. His dusky face, with
big black eyes, was in action expressive, and in repose thoughtful.
He was of a silent disposition; a firm glance, an ironic smile, a
courteous deliberation of manner seemed to hint at great reserves
of intelligence and power. Such beings open to the Western eye, so
often concerned with mere surfaces, the hidden possibilities of races
and lands over which hangs the mystery of unrecorded ages. He
not only trusted Jim, he understood him, I firmly believe. I speak
of him because he had captivated me. His -- if I may say so -- his
caustic placidity, and, at the same time, his intelligent sympathy
with Jim's aspirations, appealed to me. I seemed to behold the very
origin of friendship. If Jim took the lead, the other had captivated
his leader. In fact, Jim the leader was a captive in every sense. The
land, the people, the friendship, the love, were like the jealous
guardians of his body. Every day added a link to the fetters of that
strange freedom. I felt convinced of it, as from day to day I learned
more of the story.
  'The story! Haven't I heard the story? I've heard it on the march,
in camp (he made me scour the country after invisible game); I've
listened to a good part of it on one of the twin summits, after
climbing the last hundred feet or so on my hands and knees. Our
escort (we had volunteer followers from village to village) had
camped meantime on a bit of level ground half-way up the slope,
and in the still breathless evening the smell of wood-smoke reached
our nostrils from below with the penetrating delicacy of some choice
scent. Voices also ascended, wonderful in their distinct and imma-
terial clearness. Jim sat on the trunk of a felled tree, and pulling
out his pipe began to smoke. A new growth of grass and bushes was
springing up; there were traces of an earthwork under a mass of
thorny twigs. "It all started from here," he said, after a long and
medltative silence. On the other hill, two hundred yards across a
sombre precipice, I saw a line of high blackened stakes, showing
here and there ruinously -- the remnants of Sherif Ali's impregnable
camp.
  'But it had been taken, though. That had been his idea. He had
mounted Doramin's old ordnance on the top of that hill; two rusty
iron 7-pounders, a lot of small brass cannon -- currency cannon.
But if the brass guns represent wealth, they can also, when crammed
recklessly to the muzzle, send a solid shot to some litde distance.
The thing was to get them up there. He showed me where he had
fastened the cables, explained how he had improvised a rude cap-
stan out of a hollowed log turning upon a pointed stake, indicated
with the bowl of his pipe the outline of the earthwork. The last
hundred feet of the ascent had been the most difficult. He had made
himself responsible for success on his own head. He had induced
the war party to work hard all night. Big fires lighted at intervals
blazed all down the slope, "but up here," he explained, "the hoist-
ing gang had to fly around in the dark. " From the top he saw men
moving on the hillside like ants at work. He himself on that night
had kept on rushing down and climbing up like a squirrel, directing,
encouraging, watching all along the line. Old Doramin had himself
carried up the hill in his arm-chair. They put him down on the level
place upon the slope, and he sat there in the light of one of the big
fires -- "amazing old chap -- real old chieftain," said Jim, "with his
little fierce eyes -- a pair of immense flintlock pistols on his knees.
Magnificent things, ebony, silver-mounted, with beautiful locks
and a calibre like an old blunderbuss. A present from Stein, it
seems -- in exchange for that ring, you know. Used to belong to
good old McNeil. God only knows how he came by them. There he
sat, moving neither hand nor foot, a flame of dry brushwood behind
him, and lots of people rushing about, shouting and pulling round
him -- the most solemn, imposing old chap you can imagine. He
wouldn't have had much chance if Sherif Ali had let his infernal
crew loose at us and stampeded my lot. Eh? Anyhow, he had come
up there to die if anything went wrong. No mistake! Jove! It thrilled
me to see him there -- like a rock. But the Sherif must have thought
us mad, and never troubled to come and see how we got on. Nobody
believed it could be done. Why! I think the very chaps who pulled
and shoved and sweated over it did not believe it could be done!
Upon my word I don't think they did...."
  'He stood erect, the smouldering brier-wood in his clutch, with
a smile on his lips and a sparkle in his boyish eyes. I sat on the
stump of a tree at his feet, and below us stretched the land, the
great expanse of the forests, sombre under the sunshine, rolling like
a sea, with glints of winding rivers, the grey spots of villages, and
here and there a clearing, like an islet of light amongst the dark
waves of continuous tree-tops. A brooding gloom lay over this vast
and monotonous landscape; the light fell on it as if into an abyss.
The land devoured the sunshine; only far off, along the coast, the
empty ocean, smooth and polished within the faint haze, seemed to
rise up to the sky in a wall of steel.
  'And there I was with him, high in the sunshine on the top of
that historic hill of his. He dominated the forest, the secular doom,
the old mankind. He was like a figure set up on a pedestal, to
represent in his persistent youth the power, and perhaps the virtues,
of races that never grow old, that have emerged from the gloom. I
don't know why he should always have appeared to me symbolic.
Perhaps this is the real cause of my interest in his fate. I don't know
whether it was exactly fair to him to remember the incident which
had given a new direction to his life, but at that very moment I
remembered very distinctly. It was like a shadow in the light.'

                      CHAPTER 27

  'Already the legend had gifted him with supernatural powers.
Yes, it was said, there had been many ropes cunningly disposed,
and a strange contrivance that turned by the efforts of many men,
and each gun went up tearing slowly through the bushes, like a wild
pig rooting its way in the undergrowth, but . . . and the wisest
shook their heads. There was something occult in all this, no doubt;
for what is the strength of ropes and of men's arms? There is a
rebellious soul in things which must be overcome by powerful
charms and incantations. Thus old Sura -- a very respectable house-
holder of Patusan -- with whom I had a quiet chat one evening.
However, Sura was a professional sorcerer also, who attended all
the rice sowings and reapings for miles around for the purpose of
subduing the stubborn souls of things. This occupation he seemed
to think a most arduous one, and perhaps the souls of things are
more stubborn than the souls of men. As to the simple folk of
outlying villages, they believed and said (as the most natural thing
in the world) that Jim had carried the guns up the hill on his back --
two at a time.
  'This would make Jim stamp his foot in vexation and exclaim
with an exasperated little laugh, "What can you do with such silly
beggars? They will sit up half the night talking bally rot, and the
greater the lie the more they seem to like it." You could trace the
subtle influence of his surroundings in this irritation. lt was part of
his captivity. The earnestness of his denials was amusing, and at
last I said, "My dear fellow, you don't suppose I believe this." He
looked at me quite startled. "Well, no! I suppose not," he said, and
burst into a Homeric peal of laughter. "Well, anyhow the guns were
there, and went off all together at sunrise. Jove! You should have
seen the splinters fly," he cried. By his side Dain Waris, listening
with a quiet smile, dropped his eyelids and shuffled his feet a little.
It appears that the success in mounting the guns had given Jim's
people such a feeling of confidence that he ventured to leave the
battery under charge of two elderly Bugis who had seen some fight-
ing in their day, and went to join Dain Waris and the storming party
who were concealed in the ravine. In the small hours they began
creeping up, and when two-thirds of the way up, lay in the wet
grass waiting for the appearance of the sun, which was the agreed
signal. He told me with what impatient anguishing emotion he
watched the swift coming of the dawn; how, heated with the work
and the climbing, he felt the cold dew chilling his very bones; how
afraid he was he would begin to shiver and shake like a leaf before
the time came for the advance. "It was the slowest half-hour in my
life," he declared. Gradually the silent stockade came out on the
sky above him. Men scattered all down the slope were crouching
amongst the dark stones and dripping bushes. Dain Waris was lying
flattened by his side. "We looked at each other," Jim said, resting
a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "He smiled ar me as cheery
as you please, and I dared not stir my lips for fear I would break
out into a shivering fit. 'Pon my word, it's true! I had been streaming
with perspiration when we took cover -- so you may imagine . . ."
He declared, and I believe him, that he had no fears as to the result.
He was only anxious as to his ability to repress these shivers. He
didn't bother about the result. He was bound to get to the top of
that hill and stay there, whatever might happen. There could be no
going back for him. Those people had trusted him implicitly. Him
alone! His bare word....
  'I remember how, at this point, he paused with his eyes fixed
upon me. "As far as he knew, they never had an occasion to regret
it yet," he said. "Never. He hoped to God they never would. Mean-
time -- worse luck! -- they had got into the habit of taking his word
for anything and everything. I could have no idea! Why, only the
other day an old fool he had never seen in his life came from some
village miles away to find out if he should divorce his wife. Fact.
Solemn word. That's the sort of thing. . . He wouldn't have
believed it. Would I? Squatted on the verandah chewing betel-nut,
sighing and spitting all over the place for more than an hour, and
as glum as an undertaker before he came out with that dashed
conundrum. That's the kind of thing that isn't so funny as it looks.
What was a fellow to say? -- Good wife? -- Yes. Good wife -- old
though. Started a confounded long story about some brass pots.
Been living together for fifteen years -- twenty years -- could not tell.
A long, long time. Good wife. Beat her a little -- not much -- just a
little, when she was young. Had to -- for the sake of his honour.
Suddenly in her old age she goes and lends three brass pots to her
sister's son's wife, and begins to abuse him every day in a loud
voice. His enemies jeered at him; his face was utterly blackened.
Pots totally lost. Awfully cut up about it. Impossible to fathom a
story like that; told him to go home, and promised to come along
myself and settle it all. It's all very well to grin, but it was the
dashedest nuisance! A day's journey through the forest, another
day lost in coaxing a lot of silly villagers to get at the rights of the
affair. There was the making of a sanguinary shindy in the thing.
Every bally idiot took sides with one family or the other, and one
half of the village was ready to go for the other half with anything
that came handy . Honour bright! No joke! . . . Instead of attending
to their bally crops. Got him the infernal pots back of course --
and pacified all hands. No trouble to settle it. Of course not. Could
settle the deadliest quarrel in the country by crooking his little
finger. The trouble was to get at the truth of anything. Was not
sure to this day whether he had been fair to all parties. It worried
him. And the talk! Jove! There didn't seem to be any head or tail
to it. Rather storm a twenty-foot-high old stockade any day. Much!
Child's play to that other job. Wouldn't take so long either. Well,
yes; a funny set out, upon the whole -- the fool looked old enough
to be his grandfather. But from another point of view it was no
joke. His word decided everything -- ever since the smashing of
Sherif Ali. An awful responsibility," he repeated. "No, really --
joking apart, had it been three lives instead of three rotten brass
pots it would have been the same...."
  'Thus he illustrated the moral effect of his victory in war. It was
in truth immense. It had led him from strife to peace, and through
death into the innermost life of the people; but the gloom of the
land spread out under the sunshine preserved its appearance of
inscrutable, of secular repose. The sound of his fresh young voice --
it's extraordinary how very few signs of wear he showed -- floated
lightly, and passed away over the unchanged face of the forests like
the sound of the big guns on that cold dewy morning when he had
no other concern on earth but the proper control of the chills in his
body. With the first slant of sun-rays along these immovable tree-
tops the summit of one hill wreathed itself, with heavy reports, in
white clouds of smoke, and the other burst into an amazing noise
of yells, war-cries, shouts of anger, of surprise, of dismay. Jim and
Dain Waris were the first to lay their hands on the stakes. The
popular story has it that Jim with a touch of one finger had thrown
down the gate. He was, of course, anxious to disclaim this achieve-
ment. The whole stockade -- he would insist on explaining to you --
was a poor affair (Sherif Ali wsted mainly to the inaccessible posi-
tion); and, anyway, the thing had been already knocked to pieces
and only hung together by a miracle. He put his shoulder to it like
a little fool and went in head over heels. Jove! If it hadn't been for
Dain Waris, a pock-marked tattooed vagabond would have pinned
him with his spear to a baulk of timber like one of Stein's beetles.
The third man in, it seems, had been Tamb' Itam, Jim's own ser-
vant. This was a Malay from the north, a stranger who had wand-
ered into Patusan, and had been forcibly detained by Rajah Allang
as paddler of one of the state boats. He had made a bolt of it at the
first opportunity, and finding a precarious refuge (but very little to
eat) amongst the Bugis settlers, had attached himself to Jim's per-
son. His complexion was very dark, his face flat, his eyes prominent
and injected with bile. There was something excessive, almost fana-
tical, in his devotion to his "white lord." He was inseparable from
Jim like a morose shadow. On state occasions he would tread on his
master's heels, one hand on the haft of his kriss, keeping the com-
mon people at a distance by his truculent brooding glances. Jim
had made him the headman of his establishment, and all Patusan
respected and courted him as a person of much influence. At the
taking of the stockade he had distinguished himself greatly by the
methodical ferocity of his fighting. The storming party had come
on so quick -- Jim said -- that notwithstanding the panic of the
garrison, there was a "hot five minutes hand-to-hand inside that
stockade, till some bally ass set fire to the shelters of boughs and
dry grass, and we all had to clear out for dear life."
  'The rout, it seems, had been complete. Doramin, waiting
immovably in his chair on the hillside, with the smoke of the guns
spreading slowly above his big head, received the news with a deep
grunt. When informed that his son was safe and leading the pursuit,
he, without another sound, made a mighty effort to rise; his atten-
dants hurried to his help, and, held up reverently, he shuffled with
great dignity into a bit of shade, where he laid himself down to
sleep, covered entirely with a piece of white sheeting. In Patusan
the excitement was intense. Jim told me that from the hill, turning
his back on the stockade with its embers, black ashes, and half-
consumed corpses, he could see time after time the open spaces
between the houses on both sides of the stream fill suddenly with a
seething rush of people and get empty in a moment. His ears caught
feebly from below the tremendous din of gongs and drums; the wild
shouts of the crowd reached him in bursts of faint roaring. A lot of
streamers made a flutter as of little white, red, yellow birds amongst
the brown ridges of roofs. "You must have enjoyed it," I mur-
mured, feeling the stir of sympathetic emotion.
  ' "It was . . . it was immense! Immense!" he cried aloud, flinging
his arms open. The sudden movement startled me as though I had
seen him bare the secrets of his breast to the sunshine, to the brood-
ing forests, to the steely sea. Below us the town reposed in easy
curves upon the banks of a stream whose current seemed to sleep.
"Immense!" he repeated for a third time, speaking in a whisper,
for himself alone.
  'Immense! No doubt it was immense; the seal of success upon
his words, the conquered ground for the soles of his feet, the blind
trust of men, the belief in himself snatched from the fire, the soli-
tude of his achievement. All this, as I've warned you, gets dwarfed
in the telling. I can't with mere words convey to you the impression
of his total and utter isolation. I know, of course, he was in every
sense alone of his kind there, but the unsuspected qualities of his
nature had brought him in such close touch with his surroundings
that this isolation seemed only the effect of his power. His loneliness
added to his stature. There was nothing within sight to compare
him with, as though he had been one of those exceptional men who
can be only measured by the greatness of their fame; and his fame,
remember, was the greatest thing around for many a day's journey.
You would have to paddle, pole, or track a long weary way through
the jungle before you passed beyond the reach of its voice. Its voice
was not the trumpeting of the disreputable goddess we all know --
not blatant -- not brazen. It took its tone from the stillness and
gloom of the land without a past, where his word was the one truth
of every passing day. It shared something of the nature of that
silence through which it accompanied you into unexplored depths,
heard continuously by your side, penetrating, far-reaching -- tinged
with wonder and mystery on the lips of whispering men.'

                       CHAPTER 28

  'The defeated Sherif Ali fled the country without making another
stand, and when the miserable hunted villagers began to crawl out
of the jungle back to their rotting houses, it was Jim who, in consul-
tation with Dain Waris, appointed the headmen. Thus he became
the virtual ruler of the land. As to old Tunku Allang, his fears at
first had known no bounds. It is said that at the intelligence of the
successful storming of the hill he flung himself, face down, on the
bamboo floor of his audience-hall, and lay motionless for a whole
night and a whole day, uttering stifled sounds of such an appalling
nature that no man dared approach his prostrate form nearer than
a spear's length. Already he could see himself driven ignominiously
out of Patusan, wandering, abandoned, stripped, without opium,
without his women, without followers, a fair game for the first
comer to kill. After Sherif Ali his turn would come, and who could
resist an attack led by such a devil? And indeed he owed his life and
such authority as he still possessed at the time of my visit to Jim's
idea of what was fair alone. The Bugis had been extremely anxious
to pay off old scores, and the impassive old Doramin cherished the
hope of yet seeing his son ruler of Patusan. During one of our
interviews he deliberately allowed me to get a glimpse of this secret
ambition. Nothing could be finer in its way than the dignified wari-
ness of his approaches. He himself -- he began by declaring -- had
used his strength in his young days, but now he had grown old and
tired.... With his imposing bulk and haughty little eyes darting
sagacious, inquisitive glances, he reminded one irresistibly of a
cunning old elephant; the slow rise and fall of his vast breast went
on powerful and regular, like the heave of a calm sea. He too, as he
protested, had an unbounded confidence in Tuan Jim's wisdom. If
he could only obtain a promise! One word would be enough! . . .
His breathing silences, the low rumblings of his voice, recalled the
last efforts of a spent thunderstorm.
  'I tried to put the subject aside. It was difficult, for there could
be no question that Jim had the power; in his new sphere there did
not seem to be anything that was not his to hold or to give. But
that, I repeat, was nothing in comparison with the notion, which
occurred to me, while I listened with a show of attention, that he
seemed to have come very near at last to mastering his fate. Doramin
was anxious about the future of the country, and I was struck by
the turn he gave to the argument. The land remains where God had
put it; but white men -- he said -- they come to us and in a little
while they go. They go away. Those they leave behind do not know
when to look for their return. They go to their own land, to their
people, and so this white man too would.... I don't know what
induced me to commit myself at this point by a vigorous "No,
no." The whole extent of this indiscretion became apparent when
Doramin, turning full upon me his face, whose expression, fixed in
rugged deep folds, remained unalterable, like a huge brown mask,
said that this was good news indeed, reflectively; and then wanted
to know why.
  'His little, motherly witch of a wife sat on my other hand, with
her head covered and her feet tucked up, gazing through the great
shutter-hole. I could only see a straying lock of grey hair, a high
cheek-bone, the slight masticating motion of the sharp chin. With-
out removing her eyes from the vast prospect of forests stretching
as far as the hills, she asked me in a pitying voice why was it that
he so young had wandered from his home, coming so far, through
so many dangers? Had he no household there, no kinsmen in his
own country? Had he no old mother, who would always remember
his face? . . .
  'I was completely unprepared for this. I could only mutter and
shake my head vaguely. Afterwards I am perfectly aware I cut a
very poor figure trying to extricate myself out of this difficulty.
From that moment, however, the old nakhoda became taciturn. He
was not very pleased, I fear, and evidently I had given him food for
thought. Strangely enough, on the evening of that very day (which
was my last in Patusan) I was once more confronted with the same
question, with the unanswerable why of Jim's fate. And this brings
me to the story of his love.
  'I suppose you think it is a story that you can imagine for your-
selves. We have heard so many such stories, and the majority of us
don't believe them to be stories of love at all. For the most part we
look upon them as stories of opportunities: episodes of passion at
best, or perhaps only of youth and temptation, doomed to forgetful-
ness in the end, even if they pass through the reality of tenderness
and regret. This view mostly is right, and perhaps in this case
too.... Yet I don't know. To tell this story is by no means so easy
as it should be -- were the ordinary standpoint adequate. Apparently
it is a story very much like the others: for me, however, there is
visible in its background the melancholy figure of a woman, the
shadow of a cruel wisdom buried in a lonely grave, looking on
wistfully, helplessly, with sealed lips. The grave itself, as I came
upon it during an early morning stroll, was a rather shapeless brown
mound, with an inlaid neat border of white lumps of coral at the
base, and enclosed within a circular fence made of split saplings,
with the bark left on. A garland of leaves and flowers was woven
about the heads of the slender posts -- and the flowers were fresh.
  'Thus, whether the shadow is of my imagination or not, I can at
all events point out the significant fact of an unforgotten grave.
When I tell you besides that Jim with his own hands had worked
at the rustic fence, you will perceive directly the difference, the
individual side of the story. There is in his espousal of memory and
affection belonging to another human being something character-
istic of his seriousness. He had a conscience, and it was a romantic
conscience. Through her whole life the wife of the unspeakable
Cornelius had no other companion, confidant, and friend but her
daughter. How the poor woman had come to marry the awful little
Malacca Portuguese -- after the separation from the father of her
girl -- and how that separation had been brought about, whether by
death, which can be sometimes merciful, or by the merciless press-
ure of conventions, is a mystery to me. From the little which Stein
(who knew so many stories) had let drop in my hearing, I am con-
vinced that she was no ordinary woman. Her own father had been
a white; a high official; one of the brilliantly endowed men who are
not dull enough to nurse a success, and whose careers so often
end under a cloud. I suppose she too must have lacked the saving
dullness -- and her career ended in Patusan. Our common fate . . .
for where is the man -- I mean a real sentient man -- who does not
remember vaguely having been deserted in the fullness of pos-
session by some one or something more precious than life? . . . our
common fate fastens upon the women with a peculiar cruelty. It
does not punish like a master, but inflicts lingering torment, as
if to gratify a secret, unappeasable spite. One would think that,
appointed to rule on earth, it seeks to revenge itself upon the beings
that come nearest to rising above the trammels of earthly caution;
for it is only women who manage to put at times into their love an
element just palpable enough to give one a fright -- an extra-terres-
trial touch. I ask myself with wonder -- how the world can look to
them -- whether it has the shape and substance we know, the air we
breathe! Sometimes I fancy it must be a region of unreasonable
sublimities seething with the excitement of their adventurous souls,
lighted by the glory of all possible risks and renunciations. How-
ever, I suspect there are very few women in the world, though of
course I am aware of the multitudes of mankind and of the equality
of sexes -- in point of numbers, that is. But I am sure that the mother
was as much of a woman as the daughter seemed to be. I cannot
help picturing to myself these two, at first the young woman and
the child, then the old woman and the young girl, the awful same-
ness and the swift passage of time, the barrier of forest, the solitude
and the turmoil round these two lonely lives, and every word spoken
between them penetrated with sad meaning. There must have been
confidences, not so much of fact, I suppose, as of innermost feel-
ings -- regrets -- fears -- warnings, no doubt: warnings that the
younger did not fully understand till the elder was dead -- and Jim
came along. Then I am sure she understood much -- not everything --
the fear mostly, it seems. Jim called her by a word that means
precious, in the sense of a precious gem -- jewel. Pretty, isn't it? But
he was capable of anything. He was equal to his fortune, as he --
after all -- must have beeen equal to his misfortune. Jewel he called
her; and he would say this as he might have said "Jane," don't you
know -- with a marital, homelike, peaceful effect. I heard the name
for the first time ten minutes after I had landed in his courtyard,
when, after nearly shaking my arm off, he darted up the steps and
began to make a joyous, boyish disturbance at the door under the
heavy eaves. "Jewel! O Jewel! Quick! Here's a friend come," . . .
and suddenly peering at me in the dim verandah, he mumbled
earnestly, "You know -- this -- no confounded nonsense about it --
can't tell you how much I owe to her -- and so -- you understand --
I -- exactly as if . . " His hurried, anxious whispers were cut short
by the flitting of a white form within the house, a faint exclamation,
and a child-like but energetic little face with delicate features and a
profound, attentive glance peeped out of the inner gloom, like a
bird out of the recess of a nest. I was struck by the name, of course;
but it was not till later on that I connected it with an astonishing
rumour that had met me on my journey, at a little place on the coast
about 230 miles south of Patusan River. Stein's schooner, in which
I had my passage, put in there, to collect some produce, and, going
ashore, I found to my great surprise that the wretched locality could
boast of a third-class deputy-assistant resident, a big, fat, greasy,
blinking fellow of mixed descent, with turned-out, shiny lips. I
found him lying extended on his back in a cane chair, odiously
unbuttoned, with a large green leaf of some sort on the top of his
steaming head, and another in his hand which he used lazily as a
fan . . . Going to Patusan? Oh yes. Stein's Trading Company. He
knew. Had a permission? No business of his. It was not so bad there
now, he remarked negligently, and, he went on drawling, "There's
some sort of white vagabond has got in there, I hear.... Eh? What
you say? Friend of yours? So! . . . Then it was true there was one
of these verdammte -- What was he up to? Found his way in, the
rascal. Eh? I had not been sure. Patusan -- they cut throats there --
no business of ours." He interrupted himself to groan. "Phoo!
Almighty! The heat! The heat! Well, then, there might be some-
thing in the story too, after all, and . . ." He shut one of his beastly
glassy eyes (the eyelid went on quivering) while he leered at me
atrociously with the other. "Look here," says he mysteriously, "if --
do you understand? -- if he has really got hold of something fairly
good -- none of your bits of green glass -- understand? -- I am a
Government official -- you tell the rascal . . . Eh? What? Friend of
yours?" . . . He continued wallowing calmly in the chair . . . "You
said so; that's just it; and I am pleased to give you the hint. I suppose
you too would like to get something out of it? Don't interrupt. You
just tell him I've heard the tale, but to my Government I have made
no report. Not yet. See? Why make a report? Eh? Tell him to come
to me if they let him get alive out of the country. He had better look
out for himself. Eh? I promise to ask no questions. On the quiet --
you understand? You too -- you shall get something from me. Small
commission for the trouble. Don't interrupt. I am a Government
official, and make no report. That's business. Understand? I know
some good people that will buy anything worth having, and can
give him more money than the scoundrel ever saw in his life. I know
his sort." He fixed me steadfastly with both his eyes open, while I
stood over him utterly amazed, and asking myself whether he was
mad or drunk. He perspired, puffed, moaning feebly, and scratch-
ing himself with such horrible composure that I could not bear the
sight long enough to find out. Next day, talking casually with the
people of the little native court of the place, I discovered that a story
was travelling slowly down the coast about a mysterious white man
in Patusan who had got hold of an extraordinary gem -- namely, an
emerald of an enormous size, and altogether priceless. The emerald
seems to appeal more to the Eastern imagination than any other
precious stone. The white man had obtained it, I was told, partly
by the exercise of his wonderful strength and partly by cunning,
from the ruler of a distant country, whence he had fled instantly,
arriving in Patusan in utmost distress, but frightening the people
by his extreme ferocity, which nothing seemed able to subdue. Most
of my informants were of the opinion that the stone was probably
unlucky, -- like the famous stone of the Sultan of Succadana,
which in the old times had brought wars and untold calamities upon
that country. Perhaps it was the same stone -- one couldn't say.
Indeed the story of a fabulously large emerald is as old as the arrival
of the first white men in the Archipelago; and the belief in it is so
persistent that less than forty years ago there had been an official
Dutch inquiry into the truth of it. Such a jewel -- it was explained
to me by the old fellow from whom I heard most of this amazing
Jim-myth -- a sort of scribe to the wretched little Rajah of the place; --
such a jewel, he said, cocking his poor purblind eyes up at me (he
was sitting on the cabin floor out of respect), is best preserved by
being concealed about the person of a woman. Yet it is not every
woman that would do. She must be young -- he sighed deeply -- and
insensible to the seductions of love. He shook his head sceptically.
But such a woman seemed to be actually in existence. He had been
told of a tall girl, whom the white man treated with great respect
and care, and who never went forth from the house unattended.
People said the white man could be seen with her almost any day;
they walked side by side, openly, he holding her arm under his --
pressed to his side -- thus -- in a most extraordinary way. This might
be a lie, he conceded, for it was indeed a strange thing for any one
to do: on the other hand, there could be no doubt she wore the
white man's jewel concealed upon her bosom.'

                           CHAPTER 29

  'This was the theory of Jim's marital evening walks. I made a
third on more than one occasion, unpleasantly aware every time of
Cornelius, who nursed the aggrieved sense of his legal paternity,
slinking in the neighbourhood with that peculiar twist of his mouth
as if he were perpetually on the point of gnashing his teeth. But do
you notice how, three hundred miles beyond the end of telegraph
cables and mail-boat lines, the haggard utilitarian lies of our civilisa-
tion wither and die, to be replaced by pure exercises of imagination,
that have the futility, often the charm, and sometimes the deep
hidden truthfulness, of works of art? Romance had singled Jim for
its own -- and that was the true part of the story, which otherwise
was all wrong. He did not hide his jewel. In fact, he was extremely
proud of it.
  'It comes to me now that I had, on the whole, seen very little of
her. What I remember best is the even, olive pallor of her com-
plexion, and the intense blue-black gleams of her hair, flowing
abundantly from under a small crimson cap she wore far back on her
shapely head. Her movements were free, assured, and she blushed a
dusky red. While Jim and I were talking, she would come and go
with rapid glances at us, leaving on her passage an impression of
grace and charm and a distinct suggestion of watchfulness. Her
manner presented a curious combination of shyness and audacity.
Every pretty smile was succeeded swiftly by a look of silent,
repressed anxiety, as if put to flight by the recollection of some
abiding danger. At times she would sit down with us and, with her
soft cheek dimpled by the knuckles of her little hand, she would
listen to our talk; her big clear eyes would remain fastened on our
lips, as though each pronounced word had a visible shape. Her
mother had taught her to read and write; she had learned a good
bit of English from Jim, and she spoke it most amusingly, with his
own clipping, boyish intonation. Her tenderness hovered over him
like a flutter of wings. She lived so completely in his contemplation
that she had acquired something of his outward aspect, something
that recalled him in her movements, in the way she stretched her
arm, turned her head, directed her glances. Her vigilant affection
had an intensity that made it almost perceptible to the senses; it
seemed actually to exist in the ambient matter of space, to envelop
him like a peculiar fragrance, to dwell in the sunshine like a tremu-
lous, subdued, and impassioned note. I suppose you think that I
too am romantic, but it is a mistake. I am relating to you the sober
impressions of a bit of youth, of a strange uneasy romance that had
come in my way. I observed with interest the work of his -- well --
good fortune. He was jealously loved, but why she should be jeal-
ous, and of what, I could not tell. The land, the people, the forests
were her accomplices, guarding him with vigilant accord, with an
air of seclusion, of mystery, of invincible possession. There was no
appeal, as it were; he was imprisoned within the very freedom of
his power, and she, though ready to make a footstool of her head
for his feet, guarded her conquest inflexibly -- as though he were
hard to keep. The very Tamb' Itam, marching on our journeys upon
the heels of his white lord, with his head thrown back, truculent
and be-weaponed like a janissary, with kriss, chopper, and lance
(besides carrying Jim's gun); even Tamb' Itam allowed himself to
put on the airs of uncompromising guardianship, like a surly
devoted jailer ready to lay down his life for his captive. On the
evenings when we sat up late, his silent, indistinct form would pass
and repass under the verandah, with noiseless footsteps, or lifting
my head I would unexpectedly make him out standing rigidly erect
in the shadow. As a general rule he would vanish after a time,
without a sound; but when we rose he would spring up close to us
as if from the ground, ready for any orders Jim might wish to give.
The girl too, I believe, never went to sleep till we had separated for
the night. More than once I saw her and Jim through the window
of my room come out together quietly and lean on the rough balus-
trade -- two white forms very close, his arm about her waist, her
head on his shoulder. Their soft murmurs reached me, penetrating,
tender, with a calm sad note in the stillness of the night, like a self-
communion of one being carried on in two tones. Later on, tossing
on my bed under the mosquito-net, I was sure to hear slight creak-
ings, faint breathing, a throat cleared cautiously -- and I would know
that Tamb' Itam was still on the prowl. Though he had (by the
favour of the white lord) a house in the compound, had "taken
wife," and had lately been blessed with a child, I believe that,
during my stay at all events, he slept on the verandah every night.
It was very difficult to make this faithful and grim retainer talk.
Even Jim himself was answered in jerky short sentences, under
protest as it were. Talking, he seemed to imply, was no business of
his. The longest speech I heard him volunteer was one morning
when, suddenly extending his hand towards the courtyard, he
pointed at Cornelius and said, "Here comes the Nazarene." I don't
think he was addressing me, though I stood at his side; his object
seemed rather to awaken the indignant attention of the universe.
Some muttered allusions, which followed, to dogs and the smell of
roast-meat, struck me as singularly felicitous. The courtyard, a
large square space, was one torrid blaze of sunshine, and, bathed
in intense light, Cornelius was creeping across in full view with an
inexpressible effect of stealthiness, of dark and secret slinking. He
reminded one of everything that is unsavoury. His slow laborious
walk resembled the creeping of a repulsive beetle, the legs alone
moving with horrid industry while the body glided evenly. I sup-
pose he made straight enough for the place where he wanted to
get to, but his progress with one shoulder carried forward seemed
oblique. He was often seen circling slowly amongst the sheds, as if
following a scent; passing before the verandah with upward stealthy
glances; disappearing without haste round the corner of some hut.
That he seemed free of the place demonstrated Jim's absurd care-
lessness or else his infinite disdain, for Cornelius had played a very
dubious part (to say the least of it) in a certain episode which might
have ended fatally for Jim. As a matter of fact, it had redounded to
his glory. But everything redounded to his glory; and it was the
irony of his good fortune that he, who had been too careful of it
once, seemed to bear a charmed life.
  'You must know he had left Doramin's place very soon after his
arrival -- much too soon, in fact, for his safety, and of course a long
time before the war. In this he was actuated by a sense of duty; he
had to look after Stein's business, he said. Hadn't he? To that end,
with an utter disregard of his personal safety, he crossed the river
and took up his quarters with Cornelius. How the latter had man-
aged to exist through the troubled times I can't say. As Stein's
agent, after all, he must have had Doramin's protection in a meas-
ure; and in one way or another he had managed to wriggle through
all the deadly complications, while I have no doubt that his conduct,
whatever line he was forced to take, was marked by that abjectness
which was like the stamp of the man. That was his characteristic;
he was fundamentally and outwardly abject, as other men are mark-
edly of a generous, distinguished, or venerable appearance. It was
the element of his nature which permeated all his acts and passions
and emotions; he raged abjectly, smiled abjectly, was abjectly sad;
his civilities and his indignations were alike abject. I am sure his
love would have been the most abject of sentiments -- but can one
imagine a loathsome insect in love? And his loathsomeness, too,
was abject, so that a simply disgusting person would have appeared
noble by his side. He has his place neither in the background nor
in the foreground of the story; he is simply seen skulking on its
outskirts, enigmatical and unclean, tainting the fragrance of its
youth and of its naiveness.
  'His position in any case could not have been other than extremely
miserable, yet it may very well be that he found some advantages
in it. Jim told me he had been received at first with an abject display
of the most amicable sentiments. "The fellow apparently couldn't
contain himself for joy," said Jim with disgust. "He flew at me
every morning to shake both my hands -- confound him! -- but I
could never tell whether there would be any breakfast. If I got three
meals in two days I considered myself jolly lucky, and he made me
sign a chit for ten dollars every week. Said he was sure Mr. Stein
did not mean him to keep me for nothing. Well -- he kept me on
nothing as near as possible. Put it down to the unsettled state of the
country, and made as if to tear his hair out, begging my pardon
twenty times a day, so that I had at last to entreat him not to worry.
It made me sick. Half the roof of his house had fallen in, and the
whole place had a mangy look, with wisps of dry grass sticking out
and the corners of broken mats flapping on every wall. He did his
best to make out that Mr. Stein owed him money on the last three
years' trading, but his books were all torn, and some were missing.
He tried to hint it was his late wife's fault. Disgusting scoundrel!
At last I had to forbid him to mention his late wife at all. It made
Jewel cry. I couldn't discover what became of all the trade-goods;
there was nothing in the store but rats, having a high old time
amongst a litter of brown paper and old sacking. I was assured on
every hand that he had a lot of money buried somewhere, but of
course could get nothing out of him. It was the most miserable
existence I led there in that wretched house. I tried to do my duty
by Stein, but I had also other matters to think of. When I escaped
to Doramin old Tunku Allang got frightened and returned all my
things. It was done in a roundabout way, and with no end of
mystery, through a Chinaman who keeps a small shop here; but as
soon as I left the Bugis quarter and went to live with Cornelius it
began to be said openly that the Rajah had made up his mind to
have me killed before long. Pleasant, wasn't it? And I couldn't see
what there was to prevent him if he really had made up his mind.
The worst of it was, I couldn't help feeling I wasn't doing any good
either for Stein or for myself. Oh! it was beastly -- the whole six
weeks of it." '

                           CHAPTER 30

  'He told me further that he didn't know what made him hang
on -- but of course we may guess. He sympathised deeply with the
defenceless girl, at the mercy of that "mean, cowardly scoundrel."
It appears Cornelius led her an awful life, stopping only short of
actual ill-usage, for which he had not the pluck, I suppose. He
insisted upon her calling him father -- "and with respect too -- with
respect," he would scream, shaking a little yellow fist in her face.
"I am a respectable man, and what are you? Tell me -- what are
you? You think I am going to bring up somebody else's child and
not be treated with respect? You ought to be glad I let you. Come --
say Yes, father.... No? ... You wait a bit." Thereupon he would
begin to abuse the dead woman, till the girl would run off with her
hands to her head. He pursued her, dashing in and out and round
the house and amongst the sheds, would drive her into some corner,
where she would fall on her knees stopping her ears, and then he
would stand at a distance and declaim filthy denunciations at her
back for half an hour at a stretch. "Your mother was a devil, a
deceitful devil -- and you too are a devil," he would shriek in a final
outburst, pick up a bit of dry earth or a handful of mud (there
was plenty of mud around the house), and fling it into her hair.
Sometimes, though, she would hold out full of scorn, confronting
him in silence, her face sombre and contracted, and only now and
then uttering a word or two that would make the other jump and
writhe with the sting. Jim told me these scenes were terrible. It was
indeed a strange thing to come upon in a wilderness. The endless-
ness of such a subtly cruel situation was appalling -- if you think of
it. The respectable Cornelius (Inchi 'Nelyus the Malays called him,
with a grimace that meant many things) was a much-disappointed
man. I don't know what he had expected would be done for him in
consideration of his marriage; but evidently the liberty to steal, and
embezzle, and appropriate to himself for many years and in any
way that suited him best, the goods of Stein's Trading Company
(Stein kept the supply up unfalteringly as long as he could get his
skippers to take it there) did not seem to him a fair equivalent
for the sacrifice of his honourable name. Jim would have enjoyed
exceedingly thrashing Cornelius within an inch of his life; on the
other hand, the scenes were of so painful a character, so abominable,
that his impulse would be to get out of earshot, in order to spare
the girl's feelings. They left her agitated, speechless, clutching her
bosom now and then with a stony, desperate face, and then Jim
would lounge up and say unhappily, "Now -- come -- really -- what's
the use -- you must try to eat a bit," or give some such mark of
sympathy. Cornelius would keep on slinking through the doorways,
across the verandah and back again, as mute as a fish, and with
malevolent, mistrustful, underhand glances. "I can stop his game,"
Jim said to her once. "Just say the word." And do you know what
she answered? She said -- Jim told me impressively -- that if she had
not been sure he was intensely wretched himself, she would have
found the courage to kill him with her own hands. "Just fancy that!
The poor devil of a girl, almost a child, being driven to talk like
that," he exclaimed in horror. It seemed impossible to save her not
only from that mean rascal but even from herself! It wasn't that he
pitied her so much, he affirmed; it was more than pity; it was as if
he had something on his conscience, while that life went on. To
leave the house would have appeared a base desertion. He had
understood at last that there was nothing to expect from a longer
stay, neither accounts nor money, nor truth of any sort, but he
stayed on, exasperating Cornelius to the verge, I won't say of
insanity, but almost of courage. Meantime he felt all sorts of dangers
gathering obscurely about him. Doramin had sent over twice a
trusty servant to tell him seriously that he could do nothing for his
safety unless he would recross the river again and live amongst the
Bugis as at first. People of every condition used to call, often in the
dead of night, in order to disclose to him plots for his assassination.
He was to be poisoned. He was to be stabbed in the bath-house.
Arrangements were being made to have him shot from a boat on
the river. Each of these informants professed himself to be his very
good friend. It was enough -- he told me -- to spoil a fellow's rest for
ever. Something of the kind was extremely possible -- nay, prob-
able -- but the lying warnings gave him only the sense af deadly
scheming going on all around him, on all sides, in the dark. Nothing
more calculated to shake the best of nerve. Finally, one night,
Cornelius himself, with a great apparatus of alarm and secrecy,
unfolded in solemn wheedling tones a little plan wherein for one
hundred dollars -- or even for eighty; let's say eighty -- he, Cornelius,
would procure a trustworthy man to smuggle Jim out of the river,
all safe. There was nothing else for it now -- if Jim cared a pin for
his life. What's eighty dollars? A trifle. An insignificant sum. While
he, Cornelius, who had to remain behind, was absolutely courting
death by this proof of devotion to Mr. Stein's young friend. The
sight of his abject grimacing was -- Jim told me -- very hard to bear:
he clutched at his hair, beat his breast, rocked himself to and fro
with his hands pressed to his stomach, and actually pretended to
shed tears. "Your blood be on your own head," he squeaked at last,
and rushed out. It is a curious question how far Cornelius was
sincere in that performance. Jim confessed to me that he did not
sleep a wink after the fellow had gone. He lay on his back on a thin
mat spread over the bamboo flooring, trying idly to make out the
bare rafters, and listening to the rustlings in the torn thatch. A star
suddenly twinkled through a hole in the roof. His brain was in a
whirl; but, nevertheless, it was on that very night that he matured
his plan for overcoming Sherif Ali. It had been the thought of all
the moments he could spare from the hopeless investigation into
Stein's affairs, but the notion -- he says -- came to him then all at
once. He could see, as it were, the guns mounted on the top of the
hill. He got very hot and excited lying there; sleep was out of the
question more than ever. He jumped up, and went out barefooted
on the verandah. Walking silently, he came upon the girl, motion-
less against the wall, as if on the watch. In his then state of mind it
did not surprise him to see her up, nor yet to hear her ask in an
anxious whisper where Cornelius could be. He simply said he did
not know. She moaned a little, and peered into the campong. Every-
thing was very quiet. He was possessed by his new idea, and so full
of it that he could not help telling the girl all about it at once. She
listened, clapped her hands lightly, whispered softly her admir-
ation, but was evidently on the alert all the time. It seems he had
been used to make a confidant of her all along -- and that she on her
part could and did give him a lot of useful hints as to Patusan affairs
there is no doubt. He assured me more than once that he had never
found himself the worse for her advice. At any rate, he was proceed-
ing to explain his plan fully to her there and then, when she pressed
his arm once, and vanished from his side. Then Cornelius appeared
from somewhere, and, perceiving Jim, ducked sideways, as though
he had been shot at, and afterwards stood very still in the dusk. At
last he came forward prudently, like a suspicious cat. "There were
some fishermen there -- with fish," he said in a shaky voice. "To
sell fish -- you understand." . . . It must have been then two o'clock
in the morning -- a likely time for anybody to hawk fish about!
  'Jim, however, let the statement pass, and did not give it a single
thought. Other matters occupied his mind, and besides he had
neither seen nor heard anything. He contented himself by saying,
"Oh!" absently, got a drink of water out of a pitcher standing there,
and leaving Cornelius a prey to some inexplicable emotion -- that
made him embrace with both arms the worm-eaten rail of the veran-
dah as if his legs had failed -- went in again and lay down on his mat
to think. By-and-by he heard stealthy footsteps. They stopped. A
voice whispered tremulously through the wall, "Are you asleep?"
"No! What is it?" he answered briskly, and there was an abrupt
movement outside, and then all was still, as if the whisperer had
been startled. Extremely annoyed at this, Jim came out impetu-
ously, and Cornelius with a faint shriek fled along the verandah as
far as the steps, where he hung on to the broken banister. Very
puzzled, Jim called out to him from the distance to know what the
devil he meant. "Have you given your consideration to what I spoke
to you about?" asked Cornelius, pronouncing the words with diffi-
culty, like a man in the cold fit of a fever. "No!" shouted Jim in a
passion. "I have not, and I don't intend to. I am going to live here,
in Patusan." "You shall d-d-die h-h-here," answered Cornelius,
still shaking violently, and in a sort of expiring voice. The whole
performance was so absurd and provoking that Jim didn't know
whether he ought to be amused or angry. "Not till I have seen you
tucked away, you bet," he called out, exasperated yet ready to
laugh. Half seriously (being excited with his own thoughts, you
know) he went on shouting, "Nothing can touch me! You can do
your damnedest." Somehow the shadowy Cornelius far off there
seemed to be the hateful embodiment of all the annoyances and
difficulties he had found in his path. He let himself go -- his nerves
had been over-wrought for days -- and called him many pretty
names, -- swindler, liar, sorry rascal: in fact, carried on in an extra-
ordinary way. He admits he passed all bounds, that he was quite
beside himself -- defied all Patusan to scare him away -- declared he
would make them all dance to his own tune yet, and so on, in a
menacing, boasting strain. Perfectly bombastic and ridiculous, he
said. His ears burned at the bare recollection. Must have been off
his chump in some way.... The girl, who was sitting with us,
nodded her little head at me quickly, frowned faintly, and said, "I
heard him," with child-like solemnity. He laughed and blushed.
What stopped him at last, he said, was the silence, the complete
deathlike silence, of the indistinct figure far over there, that seemed
to hang collapsed, doubled over the rail in a weird immobility.
He came to his senses, and ceasing suddenly, wondered gready at
himself. He watched for a while. Not a stir, not a sound. "Exactly
as if the chap had died while I had been making all that noise," he
said. He was so ashamed of himself that he went indoors in a hurry
without another word, and flung himself down again. The row
seemed to have done him good though, because he went to sleep
for the rest of the night like a baby. Hadn't slept like that for weeks.
"But I didn't sleep," struck in the girl, one elbow on the table and
nursing her cheek. "I watched." Her big eyes flashed, rolling a
little, and then she fixed them on my face intently.'

                         CHAPTER 31

  'You may imagine with what interest I listened. All these details
were perceived to have some significance twenty-four hours later.
In the morning Cornelius made no allusion to the events of the
night. "I suppose you will come back to my poor house," he mut-
tered surlily, slinking up just as Jim was entering the canoe to go
over to Doramin's campong. Jim only nodded, without looking at
him. "You find it good fun, no doubt," muttered the other in a
sour tone. Jim spent the day with the old nakhoda, preaching the
necessity of vigorous action to the principal men of the Bugis com-
munity, who had been summoned for a big talk. He remembered
with pleasure how very eloquent and persuasive he had been. "I
managed to put some backbone into them that time, and no mis-
take," he said. Sherif Ali's last raid had swept the outskirts of the
settlement, and some women belonging to the town had been car-
ried off to the stockade. Sherif Ali's emissaries had been seen in the
market-place the day before, strutting about haughtily in white
cloaks, and boasting of the Rajah's friendship for their master. One
of them stood forward in the shade of a tree, and, leaning on the
long barrel of a rifle, exhorted the people to prayer and repentance,
advising them to kill all the strangers in their midst, some of whom,
he said, were infidels and others even worse -- children of Satan in
the guise of Moslems. It was reported that several of the Rajah's
people amongst the listeners had loudly expressed their appro-
bation. The terror amongst the common people was intense. Jim,
immensely pleased with his day's work, crossed the river again
before sunset.
  'As he had got the Bugis irretrievably committed to action, and
had made himself responsible for success on his own head, he was
so elated that in the lightness of his heart he absolutely tried to be
civil with Cornelius. But Cornelius became wildly jovial in
response, and it was almost more than he could stand, he says, to
hear his little squeaks of false laughter, to see him wriggle and blink,
and suddenly catch hold of his chin and crouch low over the table
with a distracted stare. The girl did not show herself, and Jim
retired early. When he rose to say good-night, Cornelius jumped
up, knocking his chair over, and ducked out of sight as if to pick
up something he had dropped. His good-night came huskily from
under the table. Jim was amazed to see him emerge with a dropping
jaw, and staring, stupidly frightened eyes. He clutched the edge of
the table. "What's the matter? Are you unwell?" asked Jim. "Yes,
yes, yes. A great colic in my stomach," says the other; and it is
Jim's opinion that it was perfectly true. If so, it was, in view of his
contemplated action, an abject sign of a still imperfect callousness
for which he must be given all due credit.
  'Be it as it may, Jim's slumbers were disturbed by a dream of
heavens like brass resounding with a great voice, which called upon
him to Awake! Awake! so loud that, notwithstanding his desperate
determination to sleep on, he did wake up in reality. The glare of
a red spluttering conflagration going on in mid-air fell on his eyes.
Coils of black thick smoke curved round the head of some appar-
ition, some unearthly being, all in white, with a severe, drawn,
anxious face. After a second or so he recognised the girl. She was
holding a dammar torch at arm's-length aloft, and in a persistent,
urgent monotone she was repeating, "Get up! Get up! Get up!"
  'Suddenly he leaped to his feet; at once she put into his hand a
revolver, his own revolver, which had been hanging on a nail, but
loaded this time. He gripped it in silence, bewildered, blinking in
the light. He wondered what he could do for her.
  'She asked rapidly and very low, "Can you face four men with
this?" He laughed while narrating this part at the recollection of his
polite alacrity. It seems he made a great display of it. "Certainly --
of course -- certainly -- command me." He was not properly awake,
and had a notion of being very civil in these extraordinary circum-
stances, of showing his unquestioning, devoted readiness. She left
the room, and he followed her; in the passage they disturbed an old
hag who did the casual cooking of the household, though she was
so decrepit as to be hardly able to understand human speech. She
got up and hobbled behind them, mumbling toothlessly. On the
verandah a hammock of sail-cloth, belonging to Cornelius, swayed
lightly to the touch of Jim's elbow. It was empty.
  'The Patusan establishment, like all the posts of Stein's Trading
Company, had originally consisted of four buildings. Two of them
were represented by two heaps of sticks, broken bamboos, rotten
thatch, over which the four corner-posts of hardwood leaned sadly
at different angles: the principal storeroom, however, stood yet,
facing the agent's house. It was an oblong hut, built of mud and
clay; it had at one end a wide door of stout planking, which so far
had not come off the hinges, and in one of the side walls there was
a square aperture, a sort of window, with three wooden bars. Before
descending the few steps the girl turned her face over her shoulder
and said quickly, "You were to be set upon while you slept." Jim
tells me he experienced a sense of deception. It was the old story.
He was weary of these attempts upon his life. He had had his fill of
these alarms. He was sick of them. He assured me he was angry
with the girl for deceiving him. He had followed her under the
impression that it was she who wanted his help, and now he had
half a mind to turn on his heel and go back in disgust. "Do you
know," he commented profoundly, "I rather think I was not quite
myself for whole weeks on end about that time." "Oh yes. You
were though," I couldn't help contradicting.
  'But she moved on swiftly, and he followed her into the court-
yard. All its fences had fallen in a long time ago; the neighbours'
buffaloes would pace in the morning across the open space, snorting
profoundly, without haste; the very jungle was invading it already.
Jim and the girl stopped in the rank grass. The light in which they
stood made a dense blackness all round, and only above their heads
there was an opulent glitter of stars. He told me it was a beautiful
night -- quite cool, with a little stir of breeze from the river. It seems
he noticed its friendly beauty. Remember this is a love story I am
telling you now. A lovely night seemed to breathe on them a soft
caress. The flame of the torch streamed now and then with a flutter-
ing noise like a flag, and for a time this was the only sound. "They
are in the storeroom waiting," whispered the girl; "they are waiting
for the signal." "Who's to give it?" he asked. She shook the torch,
which blazed up after a shower of sparks. "Only you have been
sleeping so restlessly," she continued in a murmur; "I watched
your sleep, too." "You!" he exclaimed, craning his neck to look
about him. "You think I watched on this night only!" she said,
with a sort of despairing indignation..
  'He says it was as if he had received a blow on the chest. He
gasped. He thought he had been an awful brute somehow, and he
felt remorseful, touched, happy, elated. This, let me remind you
again, is a love story; you can see it by the imbecility, not a repulsive
imbecility, the exalted imbecility of these proceedings, this station
in torchlight, as if they had come there on purpose to have it out
for the edification of concealed murderers. If Sherif Ali's emissaries
had been possessed -- as Jim remarked -- of a pennyworth of spunk,
this was the time to make a rush. His heart was thumping -- not
with fear -- but he seemed to hear the grass rustle, and he stepped
smartly out of the light. Something dark, imperfectly seen, flitted
rapidly out of sight. He called out in a strong voice, "Cornelius! O
Cornelius!" A profound silence succeeded: his voice did not seem
to have carried twenty feet. Again the girl was by his side. "Fly!"
she said. The old woman was coming up; her broken figure hovered
in crippled little jumps on the edge of the light; they heard her
mumbling, and a light, moaning sigh. "Fly!" repeated the girl
excitedly. "They are frightened now -- this light -- the voices. They
know you are awake now -- they know you are big, strong, fear-
less . . ." "If I am all that," he began; but she interrupted him:
"Yes -- to-night! But what of to-morrow night? Of the next night?
Of the night after -- of all the many, many nights? Can I be always
watching?" A sobbing catch of her breath affected him beyond the
power of words.
  'He told me that he had never felt so small, so powerless -- and
as to courage, what was the good of it? he thought. He was so
helpless that even flight seemed of no use; and though she kept
on whispering, "Go to Doramin, go to Doramin," with feverish
insistence, he realised that for him there was no refuge from that
loneliness which centupled all his dangers except -- in her. "I
thought," he said to me, "that if I went away from her it would be
the end of everything somehow." Only as they couldn't stop there
for ever in the middle of that courtyard, he made up his mind to go
and look into the storehouse. He let her follow him without thinking
of any protest, as if they had been indissolubly united. "I am fear-
less -- am I?" he muttered through his teeth. She restrained his arm.
"Wait till you hear my voice," she said, and, torch in hand, ran
lightly round the corner. He remained alone in the darkness, his
face to the door: not a sound, not a breath came from the other side.
The old hag let out a dreary groan somewhere behind his back. He
heard a high-pitched almost screaming call from the girl. "Now!
Push!" He pushed violently; the door swung with a creak and a
clatter, disclosing to his intense astonishment the low dungeon-like
interior illuminated by a lurid, wavering glare. A turmoil of smoke
eddied down upon an empty wooden crate in the middle of the
floor, a litter of rags and straw tried to soar, but only stirred feebly
in the draught. She had thrust the light through the bars of the
window. He saw her bare round arm extended and rigid, holding
up the torch with the steadiness of an iron bracket. A conical ragged
heap of old mats cumbered a distant corner almost to the ceiling,
and that was all.
  'He explained to me that he was bitterly disappointed at this. His
fortitude had been tried by so many warnings, he had been for
weeks surrounded by so many hints of danger, that he wanted the
relief of some reality, of something tangible that he could meet. "It
would have cleared the air for a couple of hours at least, if you know
what I mean," he said to me. "Jove! I had been living for days with
a stone on my chest. " Now at last he had thought he would get hold
of something, and -- nothing! Not a trace, not a sign of anybody.
He had raised his weapon as the door flew open, but now his arm
fell. "Fire! Defend yourself," the girl outside cried in an agonising
voice. She, being in the dark and with her arm thrust in to the
shoulder through the small hole, couldn't see what was going on,
and she dared not withdraw the torch now to run round. "There's
nobody here!" yelled Jim contemptuously, but his impulse to burst
into a resentful exasperated laugh died without a sound: he had
perceived in the very act of turning away that he was exchanging
glances with a pair of eyes in the heap of mats. He saw a shifting
gleam of whites. "Come out!" he cried in a fury, a little doubtful,
and a dark-faced head, a head without a body, shaped itself in the
rubbish, a strangely detached head, that looked at him with a steady
scowl. Next moment the whole mound stirred, and with a low grunt
a man emerged swiftly, and bounded towards Jim. Behind him the
mats as it were jumped and flew, his right arm was raised with a
crooked elbow, and the dull blade of a kriss protruded from his fist
held off, a little above his head. A cloth wound tight round his
loins seemed dazzlingly white on his bronze skin; his naked body
distened as if wet.
  'Jim noted all this. He told me he was experiencing a feeling of
unutterable relief, of vengeful elation. He held his shot, he says,
deliberately. He held it for the tenth part of a second, for three
strides of the man -- an unconscionable time. He held it for the
pleasure of saying to himself, That's a dead man! He was absolutely
positive and certain. He let him come on because it did not matter.
A dead man, anyhow. He noticed the dilated nostrils, the wide eyes,
the intent, eager stillness of the face, and then he fired.
  'The explosion in that confined space was stunning. He stepped
back a pace. He saw the man jerk his head up, fling his arms for-
ward, and drop the kriss. He ascertained afterwards that he had
shot him through the mouth, a little upwards, the bullet coming
out high at the back of the skull. With the impetus of his rush the
man drove straight on, his face suddenly gaping disfigured, with
his hands open before him gropingly, as though blinded, and landed
with terrific violence on his forehead, just short of Jim's bare toes.
Jim says he didn't lose the smallest detail of all this. He found
himself calm, appeased, without rancour, without uneasiness, as if
the death of that man had atoned for everything. The place was
getting very full of sooty smoke from the torch, in which the
unswaying flame burned blood-red without a flicker. He walked in
resolutely, striding over the dead body, and covered with his
revolver another naked figure outlined vaguely at the other end. As
he was about to pull the trigger, the man threw away with force a
short heavy spear, and squatted submissively on his hams, his back
to the wall and his clasped hands between his legs. "You want your
life?" Jim said. The other made no sound. "How many more of
you?" asked Jim again. "Two more, Tuan," said the man very
softly, looking with big fascinated eyes into the muzzle of the
revolver. Accordingly, two more crawled from under the mats,
holding out ostentatiously their empty hands.'

                          CHAPTER 32

  'Jim took up an advantageous position and shepherded them out
in a bunch through the doorway: all that time the torch had
remained vertical in the grip of a little hand, without so much as
a tremble. The three men obeyed him, perfectly mute, moving
automatically. He ranged them in a row. "Link arms!" he ordered.
They did so. "The first who withdraws his arm or turns his head is
a dead man," he said. "March!" They stepped out together, rigidly;
he followed, and at the side the girl, in a trailing white gown, her
black hair falling as low as her waist, bore the light. Erect and
swaying, she seemed to glide without touching the earth; the only
sound was the silky swish and rustle of the long grass. "Stop!" cried
Jim.
  'The river-bank was steep; a great freshness ascended, the light
fell on the edge of smooth dark water frothing without a ripple;
right and left the shapes of the houses ran together below the sharp
outlines of the roofs. "Take my greetings to Sherif Ali -- till I come
myself," said Jim. Not one head of the three budged. "Jump!" he
thundered. The three splashes made one splash, a shower flew up,
black heads bobbed convulsively, and disappeared; but a great
blowing and spluttering went on, growing faint, for they were
diving industriously, in great fear of a parting shot. Jim turned to
the girl, who had been a silent and attentive observer. His heart
seemed suddenly to grow too big for his breast and choke him in
the hollow of his throat. This probably made him speechless for so
long, and after returning his gaze she flung the burning torch with
a wide sweep of the arm into the river. The ruddy fiery glare, taking
a long flight through the night, sank with a vicious hiss, and the
calm soft starlight descended upon them, unchecked.
  'He did not tell me what it was he said when at last he recovered
his voice. I don't suppose he could be very eloquent. The world
was still, the night breathed on them, one of those nights that seem
created for the sheltering of tenderness, and there are moments
when our souls, as if freed from their dark envelope, glow with an
exquisite sensibility that makes certain silences more lucid than
speeches. As to the girl, he told me, "She broke down a bit. Excite-
ment -- don't you know. Reaction. Deucedly tired she must have
been -- and all that kind of thing. And -- and -- hang it all -- she was
fond of me, don't you see.... I too... didn't know, of
course . . . never entered my head . . ."
  'Then he got up and began to walk about in some agitation. "I --
I love her dearly. More than I can tell. Of course one cannot tell.
You take a different view of your actions when you come to under-
stand, when you are made to understand every day that your exist-
ence is necessary -- you see, absolutely necessary -- to another
person. I am made to feel that. Wonderful! But only try to think
what her life has been. It is too extravagantly awful! Isn't it? And
me finding her here like this -- as you may go out for a stroll and
come suddenly upon somebody drowning in a lonely dark place.
Jove! No time to lose. Well, it is a trust too . . . I believe I am equal
to it . . ."
  'I must tell you the girl had left us to ourselves some time before.
He slapped his chest. "Yes! I feel that, but I believe I am equal to
all my luck!" He had the gift of finding a special meaning in every-
thing that happened to him. This was the view he took of his love
affair; it was idyllic, a little solemn, and also true, since his belief
had all the unshakable seriousness of youth. Some time after, on
another occasion, he said to me, "I've been only two years here,
and now, upon my word, I can't conceive being able to live any-
where else. The very thought of the world outside is enough to give
me a fright; because, don't you see," he continued, with downcast
eyes watching the action of his boot busied in squashing thoroughly
a tiny bit of dried mud (we were strolling on the river-bank) --
"because I have not forgotten why I came here. Not yet!"
  'I refrained from looking at him, but I think I heard a short sigh;
we took a turn or two in silence. "Upon my soul and conscience,"
he began again, "if such a thing can be forgotten, then I think I
have a right to dismiss it from my mind. Ask any man here" . . .
his voice changed. "Is it not strange," he went on in a gentle, almost
yearning tone, "that all these people, all these people who would
do anything for me, can never be made to understand? Never! If you
disbelieved me I could not call them up. It seems hard, somehow. I
am stupid, am I not? What more can I want? If you ask them who
is brave -- who is true -- who is just -- who is it they would trust with
their lives? -- they would say, Tuan Jim. And yet they can never
know the real, real truth . . ."
  'That's what he said to me on my last day with him. I did not let
a murmur escape me: I felt he was going to say more, and come no
nearer to the root of the matter. The sun, whose concentrated glare
dwarfs the earth into a restless mote of dust, had sunk behind the
forest, and the diffused light from an opal sky seemed to cast upon
a world without shadows and without brilliance the illusion of a
calm and pensive greatness. I don't know why, listening to him, I
should have noted so distinctly the gradual darkening of the river,
of the air; the irresistible slow work of the night settling silently on
all the visible forms, effacing the oudines, burying the shapes
deeper and deeper, like a steady fall of impalpable black dust.
  ' "Jove!" he began abruptly, "there are days when a fellow is too
absurd for anything; only I know I can tell you what I like. I talk
about being done with it -- with the bally thing at the back of my
head . . . Forgetting . . . Hang me if I know! I can think of it
quietly. After all, what has it proved? Nothing. I suppose you don't
think so . . ."
  'I made a protesting murmur.
  ' "No matter," he said. "I am satisfied . . . nearly. I've got to
look only at the face of the first man that comes along, to regain my
confidence. They can't be made to understand what is going on in
me. What of that? Come! I haven't done so badly."
  ' "Not so badly," I said.
  ' "But all the same, you wouldn't like to have me aboard your
own ship hey?"
  ' "Confound you!" I cried. "Stop this."
  ' "Aha! You see," he said, crowing, as it were, over me placidly.
"Only," he went on, "you just try to tell this to any of them here.
They would think you a fool, a liar, or worse. And so I can stand
it. I've done a thing or two for them, but this is what they have
done for me."
  ' "My dear chap," I cried, "you shall always remain for them an
insoluble mystery." Thereupon we were silent.
  ' "Mystery," he repeated, before looking up. "Well, then let me
always remain here."
  'After the sun had set, the darkness seemed to drive upon us,
borne in every faint puff of the breeze. In the middle of a hedged
path I saw the arrested, gaunt, watchful, and apparently one-legged
silhouette of Tamb' Itam; and across the dusky space my eye
detected something white moving to and fro behind the supports
of the roof. As soon as Jim, with Tamb' Itam at his heels, had
started upon his evening rounds, I went up to the house alone,
and, unexpectedly, found myself waylaid by the girl, who had been
clearly waiting for this opportunity.
  'It is hard to tell you what it was precisely she wanted to wrest
from me. Obviously it would be something very simple -- the sim-
plest impossibility in the world; as, for instance, the exact descrip-
tion of the form of a cloud. She wanted an assurance, a statement,
a promise, an explanation -- I don't know how to call it: the thing
has no name. It was dark under the projecting roof, and all I could
see were the flowing lines of her gown, the pale small oval of her
face, with the white flash of her teeth, and, turned towards me, the
big sombre orbits of her eyes, where there seemed to be a faint stir,
such as you may fancy you can detect when you plunge your gaze
to the bottom of an immensely deep well. What is it that moves
there? you ask yourself. Is it a blind monster or only a lost gleam
from the universe? It occurred to me -- don't laugh -- that all things
being dissimilar, she was more inscrutable in her childish ignorance
than the Sphinx propounding childish riddles to wayfarers. She
had been carried off to Patusan before her eyes were open. She had
grown up there; she had seen nothing, she had known nothing, she
had no conception of anything. I ask myself whether she were sure
that anything else existed. What notions she may have formed of
the outside world is to me inconceivable: all that she knew of its
inhabitants were a betrayed woman and a sinister pantaloon. Her
lover also came to her from there, gifted with irresistible seductions;
but what would become of her if he should return to these inconceiv-
able regions that seemed always to claim back their own? Her
mother had warned her of this with tears, before she died . . .
  'She had caught hold of my arm firmly, and as soon as I had
stopped she had withdrawn her hand in haste. She was audacious
and shrinking. She feared nothing, but she was checked by the
profound incertitude and the extreme strangeness -- a brave person
groping in the dark. I belonged to this Unknown that might claim
Jim for its own at any moment. I was, as it were, in the secret of its
nature and of its intentions -- the confidant of a threatening
mystery -- armed with its power, perhaps! I believe she supposed I
could with a word whisk Jim away out of her very arms; it is my
sober conviction she went through agonies of apprehension during
my long talks with Jim; through a real and intolerable anguish that
might have conceivably driven her into plotting my murder, had
the fierceness of her soul been equal to the tremendous situation it
had created. This is my impression, and it is all I can give you: the
whole thing dawned gradually upon me, and as it got clearer and
clearer I was overwhelmed by a slow incredulous amazement. She
made me believe her, but there is no word that on my lips could
render the effect of the headlong and vehement whisper, of the soft,
passionate tones, of the sudden breathless pause and the appealing
movement of the white arms extended swiftly. They fell; the ghostly
figure swayed like a slender tree in the wind, the pale oval of the
face drooped; it was impossible to distinguish her features, the
darkness of the eyes was unfathomable; two wide sleeves uprose in
the dark like unfolding wings, and she stood silent, holding her
head in her hands.'

                      CHAPTER 33

  'I was immensely touched: her youth, her ignorance, her pretty
beauty, which had the simple charm and the delicate vigour of a
wild flower, her pathetic pleading, her helplessness, appealed to me
with almost the strength of her own unreasonable and natural fear.
She feared the unknown as we all do, and her ignorance made the
unknown infinitely vast. I stood for it, for myself, for you fellows,
for all the world that neither cared for Jim nor needed him in the
least. I would have been ready enough to answer for the indifference
of the teeming earth but for the reflection that he too belonged to
this mysterious unknown of her fears, and that, however much I
stood for, I did not stand for him. This made me hesitate. A murmur
of hopeless pain unsealed my lips. I began by protesting that I at
least had come with no intention to take Jim away.
  'Why did I come, then? After a slight movement she was as still
as a marble statue in the night. I tried to explain briefly: friendship,
business; if I had any wish in the matter it was rather to see him
stay.... "They always leave us," she murmured. The breath of
sad wisdom from the grave which her piety wreathed with flowers
seemed to pass in a faint sigh.... Nothing, I said, could separate
Jim from her.
  'It is my firm conviction now; it was my conviction at the time;
it was the only possible conclusion from the facts of the case. It was
not made more certain by her whispering in a tone in which one
speaks to oneself, "He swore this to me." "Did you ask him?" I
said.
  'She made a step nearer. "No. Never!" She had asked him only
to go away. It was that night on the river-bank, after he had killed
the man -- after she had flung the torch in the water because he was
looking at her so. There was too much light, and the danger was
over then -- for a little time -- for a little time. He said then he would
not abandon her to Cornelius. She had insisted. She wanted him to
leave her. He said that he could not -- that it was impossible. He
trembled while he said this. She had felt him tremble.... One
does not require much imagination to see the scene, almost to hear
their whispers. She was afraid for him too. I believe that then she
saw in him only a predestined victim of dangers which she under-
stood better than himself. Though by nothing but his mere presence
he had mastered her heart, had filled all her thoughts, and had
possessed himself of all her affections, she underestimated his
chances of success. It is obvious that at about that time everybody
was inclined to underestimate his chances. Strictly speaking he
didn't seem to have any. I know this was Cornelius's view. He
confessed that much to me in extenuation of the shady part he had
played in Sherif Ali's plot to do away with the infidel. Even Sherif
Ali himself, as it seems certain now, had nothing but contempt for
the white man. Jim was to be murdered mainly on religious
grounds, I believe. A simple act of piety (and so far infinitely meri-
torious), but otherwise without much importance. In the last part
of this opinion Cornelius concurred. "Honourable sir," he argued
abjectly on the only occasion he managed to have me to himself --
"honourable sir, how was I to know? Who was he? What could he
do to make people believe him? What did Mr. Stein mean sending
a boy like that to talk big to an old servant? I was ready to save him
for eighty dollars. Only eighty dollars. Why didn't the fool go?
Was I to get stabbed myself for the sake of a stranger?" He grovelled
in spirit before me, with his body doubled up insinuatingly and his
hands hovering about my knees, as though he were ready to
embrace my legs. "What's eighty dollars? An insignificant sum to
give to a defenceless old man ruined for life by a deceased she-
devil." Here he wept. But I anticipate. I didn't that night chance
upon Cornelius till I had had it out with the girl.
  'She was unselfish when she urged Jim to leave her, and even to
leave the country. It was his danger that was foremost in her
thoughts -- even if she wanted to save herself too -- perhaps uncon-
sciously: but then look at the warning she had, look at the lesson
that could be drawn from every moment of the recently ended life
in which all her memories were centred. She fell at his feet -- she
told me so -- there by the river, in the discreet light of stars which
showed nothing except great masses of silent shadows, indefinite
open spaces, and trembling faintly upon the broad stream made it
appear as wide as the sea. He had lifted her up. He lifted her up,
and then she would struggle no more. Of course not. Strong arms,
a tender voice, a stalwart shoulder to rest her poor lonely little head
upon. The need -- the infinite need -- of all this for the aching heart,
for the bewildered mind; -- the promptings of youth -- the necessity
of the moment. What would you have? One understands -- unless
one is incapable of understanding anything under the sun. And so
she was content to be lifted up -- and held. "You know -- Jove! this
is serious -- no nonsense in it!" as Jim had whispered hurriedly with
a troubled concerned face on the threshold of his house. I don't
know so much about nonsense, but there was nothing light-hearted
in their romance: they came together under the shadow of a life's
disaster, like knight and maiden meeting to exchange vows amongst
haunted ruins. The starlight was good enough for that story, a light
so faint and remote that it cannot resolve shadows into shapes, and
show the other shore of a stream. I did look upon the stream that
night and from the very place; it rolled silent and as black as Styx:
the next day I went away, but I am not likely to forget what it was
she wanted to be saved from when she entreated him to leave her
while there was time. She told me what it was, calmed -- she was
now too passionately interested for mere excitement -- in a voice as
quiet in the obscurity as her white half-lost figure. She told me, "I
didn't want to die weeping." I thought I had not heard aright.
  ' "You did not want to die weeping?" I repeated after her. "Like
my mother," she added readily. The outlines of her white shape
did not stir in the least. "My mother had wept bitterly before she
died," she explained. An inconseivable calmness seemed to have
risen from the ground around us, imperceptibly, like the still rise of
a flood in the night, obliterating the familiar landmarks of emotions.
There came upon me, as though I had felt myself losing my footing
in the midst of waters, a sudden dread, the dread of the unknown
depths. She went on explaining that, during the last moments,
being alone with her mother, she had to leave the side of the couch
to go and set her back against the door, in order to keep Cornelius
out. He desired to get in, and kept on drumming with both fists,
only desisting now and again to shout huskily, "Let me in! Let me
in! Let me in!" In a far corner upon a few mats the moribund
woman, already speechless and unable to lift her arm, rolled her
head over, and with a feeble movement of her hand seemed to
command - "No! No!" and the obedient daughter, setting her
shoulders with all her strength against the door, was looking on.
"The tears fell from her eyes -- and then she died," concluded the
girl in an imperturbable monotone, which more than anything else,
more than the white statuesque immobility of her person, more
than mere words could do, troubled my mind profoundly with the
passive, irremediable horror of the scene. It had the power to drive
me out of my conception of existence, out of that shelter each of us
makes for himself to creep under in moments of danger, as a tortoise
withdraws within its shell. For a moment I had a view of a world
that seemed to wear a vast and dismal aspect of disorder, while, in
truth, thanks to our unwearied efforts, it is as sunny as arrangement
of small conveniences as the mind of man can conceive. But still --
it was only a moment: I went back into my shell directly. One must --
don't you know? -- though I seemed to have lost all my words in the
chaos of dark thoughts I had contemplated for a second or two
beyond the pale. These came back, too, very soon, for words also
belong to the sheltering conception of light and order which is our
refuge. I had them ready at my disposal before she whispered
softly, "He swore he would never leave me, when we stood there
alone! He swore to me!"... "And it is possible that you -- you! do
not believe him?" I asked, sincerely reproachful, genuinely
shocked. Why couldn't she believe? Wherefore this craving for
incertitude, this clinging to fear, as if incertitude and fear had been
the safeguards of her love. It was monstrous. She should have made
for herself a shelter of inexpugnable peace out of that honest affec-
tion. She had not the knowledge -- not the skill perhaps. The night
had come on apace; it had grown pitch-dark where we were, so that
without stirring she had faded like the intangible form of a wistful
and perverse spirit. And suddenly I heard her quiet whisper again,
"Other men had sworn the same thing." It was like a meditative
comment on some thoughts full of sadness, of awe. And she added,
still lower if possible, "My father did." She paused the time to draw
an inaudible breath. "Her father too." . . . These were the things
she knew! At once I said, "Ah! but he is not like that." This, it
seemed, she did not intend to dispute; but after a time the strange
still whisper wandering dreamily in the air stole into my ears. "Why
is he different? Is he better? Is he . . ." "Upon my word of hon-
our," I broke in, "I believe he is." We subdued our tones to a
mysterious pitch. Amongst the huts of Jim's workmen (they were
mostly liberated slaves from the Sherif's stockade) somebody
started a shrill, drawling song. Across the river a big fire (at Dora-
min's, I think) made a glowing ball, completely isolated in the
night. "Is he more true?" she murmured. "Yes," I said. "More true
than any other man," she repeated in lingering accents. "Nobody
here," I said, "would dream of doubting his word -- nobody would
dare -- except you."
  'I think she made a movement at this. "More brave," she went
on in a changed tone. "Fear will never drive him away from you,"
I said a little nervously. The song stopped short on a shrill note,
and was succeeded by several voices talking in the distance. Jim's
voice too. I was struck by her silence. "What has he been telling
you? He has been telling you something?" I asked. There was no
answer. "What is it he told you?" I insisted.
  ' "Do you think I can tell you? How am I to know? How am I to
understand?" she cried at last. There was a stir. I believe she was
wringing her hands. "There is something he can never forget."
  ' "So much the better for you," I said gloomily.
  ' "What is it? What is it?" She put an extraordinary force of
appeal into her supplicating tone. "He says he had been afraid.
How can I believe this? Am I a mad woman to believe this? You all
remember something! You all go back to it. What is it? You tell
me! What is this thing? Is it alive? -- is it dead? I hate it. It is cruel.
Has it got a face and a voice -- this calamity? Will he see it -- will he
hear it? In his sleep perhaps when he cannot see me -- and then arise
and go. Ah! I shall never forgive him. My mother had forgiven --
but I, never! Will it be a sign -- a call?"
  'It was a wonderful experience. She mistrusted his very slum-
bers -- and she seemed to think I could tell her why! Thus a poor
mortal seduced by the charm of an apparition might have tried to
wring from another ghost the tremendous secret of the claim the
other world holds over a disembodied soul astray amongst the pas-
sions of this earth. The very ground on which I stood seemed to
melt under my feet. And it was so simple too; but if the spirits
evoked by our fears and our unrest have ever to vouch for each
other's constancy before the forlorn magicians that we are, then I --
I alone of us dwellers in the flesh -- have shuddered in the hopeless
chill of such a task. A sign, a call! How telling in its expression was
her ignorance. A few words! How she came to know them, how
she came to pronounce them, I can't imagine. Women find their
inspiration in the stress of moments that for us are merely awful,
absurd, or futile. To discover that she had a voice at all was enough
to strike awe into the heart. Had a spurned stone cried out in pain
it could not have appeared a greater and more pitiful miracle. These
few sounds wandering in the dark had made their two benighted
lives tragic to my mind. It was impossible to make her understand.
I chafed silendy at my impotence. And Jim, too -- poor devil! Who
would need him? Who would remember him? He had what he
wanted. His very existence probably had been forgotten by this
time. They had mastered their fates. They were tragic.
  'Her immobility before me was clearly expectant, and my part
was to speak for my brother from the realm of forgetful shade. I
was deeply moved at my responsibility and at her distress. I would
have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, torment-
ing itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about
the cruel wires of a cage. Nothing easier than to say, Have no fear!
Nothing more difficult. How does one kill fear, I wonder? How do
you shoot a spectre through the heart, slash off its spectral head,
take it by its spectral throat? It is an enterprise you rush into while
you dream, and are glad to make your escape with wet hair and
every limb shaking. The bullet is not run, the blade not forged, the
man not born; even the winged words of truth drop at your feet
like lumps of lead. You require for such a desperate encounter an
enchanted and poisoned shaft dipped in a lie too subtle to be found
on earth. An enterprise for a dream, my masters!
  'I began my exorcism with a heavy heart, with a sort of sullen
anger in it too. Jim's voice, suddenly raised with a stern intonation,
carried across the courtyard, reproving the carelessness of some
dumb sinner by the river-side. Nothing -- I said, speaking in a
distinct murmur -- there could be nothing, in that unknown world
she fancied so eager to rob her of her happiness, there was nothing,
neither living nor dead, there was no face, no voice, no power, that
could tear Jim from her side. I drew breath and she whispered
softly, "He told me so." "He told you the truth," I said.
"Nothing," she sighed out, and abruptly turned upon me with a
barely audible intensity of tone: "Why did you come to us from out
there? He speaks of you too often. You make me afraid. Do you --
do you want him?" A sort of stealthy fierceness had crept into our
hurried mutters. "I shall never come again," I said bitterly. "And
I don't want him. No one wants him." "No one," she repeated in
a tone of doubt. "No one," I affirmed, feeling myself swayed by
some strange excitement. "You think him strong, wise, courageous,
great -- why not believe him to be true too? I shall go to-morrow --
and that is the end. You shall never be troubled by a voice from
there again. This world you don't know is too big to miss him. You
understand? Too big. You've got his heart in your hand. You must
feel that. You must know that." "Yes, I know that," she breathed
out, hard and still, as a statue might whisper.
  'I felt I had done nothing. And what is it that I had wished to do?
I am not sure now. At the time I was animated by an inexplicable
ardour, as if before some great and necessary task -- the influence
of the moment upon my mental and emotional state. There are in
all our lives such moments, such influences, coming from the out-
side, as it were, irresistible, incomprehensible -- as if brought about
by the mysterious conjunctions of the planets. She owned, as I had
put it to her, his heart. She had that and everything else -- if she
could only believe it. What I had to tell her was that in the whole
world there was no one who ever would need his heart, his mind,
his hand. It was a common fate, and yet it seemed an awful thing
to say of any man. She listened without a word, and her stillness
now was like the protest of an invincible unbelief. What need she
care for the world beyond the forests? I asked. From all the multi-
tudes that peopled the vastness of that unknown there would come,
I assured her, as long as he lived, neither a call nor a sign for him.
Never. I was carried away. Never! Never! I remember with wonder
the sort of dogged fierceness I displayed. I had the illusion of having
got the spectre by the throat at last. Indeed the whole real thing has
left behind the detailed and amazing impression of a dream. Why
should she fear? She knew him to be strong, true, wise, brave. He
was all that. Certainly. He was more. He was great -- invincible --
and the world did not want him, it had forgotten him, it would not
even know tlim.
  'I stopped; the silence over Patusan was profound, and the feeble
dry sound of a paddle striking the side of a canoe somewhere in
the middle of the river seemed to make it infinite. "Why?" she
murmured. I felt that sort of rage one feels during a hard tussle.
The spectre vas trying to slip out of my grasp. "Why?" she repeated
louder; "tell me!" And as I remained confounded, she stamped
with her foot like a spoilt child. "Why? Speak." "You want to
know?" I asked in a fury. "Yes!" she cried. "Because he is not good
enough," I said brutally. During the moment's pause I noticed the
fire on the other shore blaze up, dilating the circle of its glow like
an amazed stare, and contract suddenly to a red pin-point. I only
knew how close to me she had been when I felt the clutch of her
fingers on my forearm. Without raising her voice, she threw into it
an infinity of scathing contempt, bitterness, and despair.
  ' "This is the very thing he said.... You lie!"
  'The last two words she cried at me in the native dialect. "Hear
me out!" I entreated. She caught her breath tremulously, flung my
arm away. "Nobody, nobody is good enough," I began with the
greatest earnestness. I could hear the sobbing labour of her breath
frightfully quickened. I hung my head. What was the use? Foot-
steps were approaching; I slipped away without another word....'

                          CHAPTER 34

  Marlow swung his legs out, got up quickly, and staggered a little,
as though he had been set down after a rush through space. He
leaned his back against the balustrade and faced a disordered array
of long cane chairs. The bodies prone in them seemed startled out
of their torpor by his movement. One or two sat up as if alarmed;
here and there a cigar glowed yet; Marlow looked at them all with
the eyes of a man returning from the excessive remoteness of a
dream. A throat was cleared; a calm voice encouraged negligently,
'Well.'
  'Nothing,' said Marlow with a slight start. 'He had told her --
that's all. She did not believe him -- nothing more. As to myself, I
do not know whether it be just, proper, decent for me to rejoice or
to be sorry. For my part, I cannot say what I believed -- indeed I
don't know to this day, and never shall probably. But what did the
poor devil believe himself? Truth shall prevail -- don't you know.
Magna est veritas el . . . Yes, when it gets a chance. There is a law,
no doubt -- and likewise a law regulates your luck in the throwing
of dice. It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard,
Fortune -- the ally of patient Time -- that holds an even and scrupu-
lous balance. Both of us had said the very same thing. Did we both
speak the truth -- or one of us did -- or neither? . . .'
  Marlow paused, crossed his arms on his breast, and in a changed
tone --
  'She said we lied. Poor soul! Well -- let's leave it to Chance, whose
ally is Time, that cannot be hurried, and whose enemy is Death,
that will not wait. I had retreated -- a little cowed, I must own. I
had tried a fall with fear itself and got thrown -- of course. I had
only succeeded in adding to her anguish the hint of some mysterious
collusion, of an inexplicable and incomprehensible conspiracy to
keep her for ever in the dark. And it had come easily, naturally,
unavoidably, by his act, by her own act! It was as though I had been
shown the working of the implacable destiny of which we are the
victims -- and the tools. It was appalling to think of the girl whom
I had left standing there motionless; Jim's footsteps had a fateful
sound as he tramped by, without seeing me, in his heavy laced
boots. "What? No lights!" he said in a loud, surprised voice. "What
are you doing in the dark -- you two?" Next moment he caught sight
of her, I suppose. "Hallo, girl!" he cried cheerily. "Hallo, boy!"
she answered at once, with amazing pluck.
  'This was their usual greeting to each other, and the bit of swagger
she would put into her rather high but sweet voice was very droll,
pretty, and childlike. It delighted Jim greatly. This was the last
occasion on which I heard them exchange this familiar hail, and it
struck a chill into my heart. There was the high sweet voice, the
pretty effort, the swagger; but it all seemed to die out prematurely,
and the playful call sounded like a moan. It was too confoundedly
awful. "What have you done with Marlow?" Jim was asking; and
then, "Gone down -- has he? Funny I didn't meet him.... You
there, Marlow?"
  'I didn't answer. I wasn't going in -- not yet at any rate. I really
couldn't. While he was calling me I was engaged in making my
escape through a little gate leading out upon a stretch of newly
cleared ground. No; I couldn't face them yet. I walked hastily with
lowered head along a trodden path. The ground rose gently, the
few big trees had been felled, the undergrowth had been cut down
and the grass fired. He had a mind to try a coffee-plantation there.
The big hill, rearing its double summit coal-black in the clear yellow
glow of the rising moon, seemed to cast its shadow upon the ground
prepared for that experiment. He was going to try ever so many
experiments; I had admired his energy, his enterprise, and his
shrewdness. Nothing on earth seeemed less real now than his plans,
his energy, and his enthusiasm; and raising my eyes, I saw part of
the moon glittering through the bushes at the bottom of the chasm.
For a moment it looked as though the smooth disc, falling from its
place in the sky upon the earth, had rolled to the bottom of that
precipice: its ascending movement was like a leisurely rebound; it
disengaged itself from the tangle of twigs; the bare contorted limb
of some tree, growing on the slope, made a black crack right across
its face. It threw its level rays afar as if from a cavern, and in this
mournful eclipse-like light the stumps of felled trees uprose very
dark, the heavy shadows fell at my feet on all sides, my own moving
shadow, and across my path the shadow of the solitary grave perpet-
ually garlanded with flowers. In the darkened moonlight the inter-
laced blossoms took on shapes foreign to one's memory and colours
indefinable to the eye, as though they had been special flowers
gathered by no man, grown not in this world, and destined for the
use of the dead alone. Their powerful scent hung in the warm air,
making it thick and heavy like the fumes of incense. The lumps of
white coral shone round the dark mound like a chaplet of bleached
skulls, and everything around was so quiet that when I stood still
all sound and all movement in the world seemed to come to an end.
  'It was a great peace, as if the earth had been one grave, and for
a time I stood there thinking mostly of the living who, buried in
remote places out of the knowledge of mankind, still are fated to
share in its tragic or grotesque miseries. In its noble struggles too --
who knows? The human heart is vast enough to contain all the
world. It is valiant enough to bear the burden, but where is the
courage that would cast it off?
  'I suppose I must have fallen into a sentimental mood; I only
know that I stood there long enough for the sense of utter solitude
to get hold of me so completely that all I had lately seen, all I had
heard, and the very human speech itself, seemed to have passed
away out of existence, living only for a while longer in my memory,
as though I had been the last of mankind. It was a strange and
melancholy illusion, evolved half-consciously like all our illusions,
which I suspect only to be visions of remote unattainable truth,
seen dimly. This was, indeed, one of the lost, forgotten, unknown
places of the earth; I had looked under its obscure surface; and I
felt that when to-morrow I had left it for ever, it would slip out of
existence, to live only in my memory till I myself passed into ob-
livion. I have that feeling about me now; perhaps it is that feeling
which has incited me to tell you the story, to try to hand over to
you, as it were, its very existence, its reality -- the truth disclosed
in a moment of illusion.
  'Cornelius broke upon it. He bolted out, vermin-like, from the
long grass growing in a depression of the ground. I believe his
house was rotting somewhere near by, though I've never seen it, not
having been far enough in that direction. He ran towards me upon
the path; his feet, shod in dirty white shoes, twinkled on the dark
earth; he pulled himself up, and began to whine and cringe under
a tall stove-pipe hat. His dried-up little carcass was swallowed up,
totally lost, in a suit of black broadcloth. That was his costume for
holidays and ceremonies, and it reminded me that this was the
fourth Sunday I had spent in Patusan. All the time of my stay I had
been vaguely aware of his desire to confide in me, if he only could
get me all to himself. He hung about with an eager craving look on
his sour yellow little face; but his timidity had kept him back as
much as my natural reluctance to have anything to do with such an
unsavoury creature. He would have succeeded, nevertheless, had
he not been so ready to slink off as soon as you looked at him. He
would slink off before Jim's severe gaze, before my own, which I
tried to make indifferent, even before Tamb' Itam's surly, superior
glance. He was perpetually slinking away; whenever seen he was
seen moving off deviously, his face over his shoulder, with either a
mistrustful snarl or a woe-begone, piteous, mute aspect; but no
assumed expression could conceal this innate irremediable abject-
ness of his nature, any more than an arrangement of clothing can
conceal some monstrous deformity of the body.
  'I don't know whether it was the demoralisation of my utter
defeat in my encounter with a spectre of fear less than an hour ago,
but I let him capture me without even a show of resistance. I was
doomed to be the recipient of confidences, and to be confronted
with unanswerable questions. It was trying; but the contempt, the
unreasoned contempt, the man's appearance provoked, made it
easier to bear. He couldn't possibly matter. Nothing mattered, since
I had made up my mind that Jim, for whom alone I cared, had at
last mastered his fate. He had told me he was satisfied . . . nearly.
This is going further than most of us dare. I -- who have the right
to think myself good enough -- dare not. Neither does any of you
here, I suppose? . . .'
  Marlow paused, as if expecting an answer. Nobody spoke.
  'Quite right,' he began again. 'Let no soul know, since the truth
can be wrung out of us only by some cruel, little, awful catastrophe.
But he is one of us, and he could say he was satisfied . . . nearly.
Just fancy this! Nearly satisfied. One could almost envy him his
catastrophe. Nearly satisfied. After this nothing could matter. It
did not matter who suspected him, who trusted him, who loved
him, who hated him -- especially as it was Cornelius who hated him.
  'Yet after all this was a kind of recognition. You shall judge of a
man by his foes as well as by his friends, and this enemy of Jim was
such as no decent man would be ashamed to own, without, however,
making too much of him. This was the view Jim took, and in which
I shared; but Jim disregarded him on general grounds. "My dear
Marlow," he said, "I feel that if I go straight nothing can touch me.
Indeed I do. Now you have been long enough here to have a good
look round -- and, frankly, don't you think I am pretty safe? It all
depends upon me, and, by Jove! I have lots of confidence in myself.
The worst thing he could do would be to kill me, I suppose. I don't
think for a moment he would. He couldn't, you know -- not if I
were myself to hand him a loaded rifle for the purpose, and then
turn my back on him. That's the sort of thing he is. And suppose
he would -- suppose he could? Well -- what of that? I didn't come
here flying for my life -- did I? I came here to set my back against
the wall, and I am going to stay here . . ."
  ' "Till you are quite satisfied," I struck in.
  'We were sitting at the time under the roof in the stern of his
boat; twenty paddles flashed like one, ten on a side, striking the
water with a single splash, while behind our backs Tamb' Itam
dipped silently right and left, and stared right down the river,
attentive to keep the long canoe in the greatest strength of the
current. Jim bowed his head, and our last talk seemed to flicker out
for good. He was seeing me off as far as the mouth of the river. The
schooner had left the day before, working down and drifting on the
ebb, while I had prolonged my stay overnight. And now he was
seeing me off.
  'Jim had been a little angry with me for mentioning Cornelius at
all. I had not, in truth, said much. The man was too insignificant
to be dangerous, though he was as full of hate as he could hold. He
had called me "honourable sir" at every second sentence, and had
whined at my elbow as he followed me from the grave of his "late
wife" to the gate of Jim's compound. He declared himself the most
unhappy of men, a victim, crushed like a worm; he entreated me
to look at him. I wouldn't turn my head to do so; but I could see
out of the corner of my eye his obsequious shadow gliding after
mine, while the moon, suspended on our right hand, seemed to
gloat serenely upon the spectacle. He tried to explain -- as I've told
you -- his share in the events of the memorable night. It was a matter
of expediency. How could he know who was going to get the upper
hand? "I would have saved him, honourable sir! I would have saved
him for eighty dollars," he protested in dulcet tones, keeping a pace
behind me. "He has saved himself," I said, "and he has forgiven
you." I heard a sort of tittering, and turned upon him; at once he
appeared ready to take to his heels. "What are you laughing at?"
I asked, standing still. "Don't be deceived, honourable sir!" he
shrieked, seemingly losing all control over his feelings. "He save
himself! He knows nothing, honourable sir -- nothing whatever.
Who is he? What does he want here -- the big thief? What does he
want here? He throws dust into everybody's eyes; he throws dust
into your eyes, honourable sir; but he can't throw dust into my
eyes. He is a big fool, honourable sir." I laughed contemptuously,
and, turning on my heel, began to walk on again. He ran up to my
elbow and whispered forcibly, "He's no more than a little child
here -- like a little child -- a little child." Of course I didn't take
the slightest notice, and seeing the time pressed, because we were
approaching the bamboo fence that glittered over the blackened
ground of the clearing, he came to the point. He commenced by
being abjectly lachrymose. His great misfortunes had affected his
head. He hoped I would kindly forget what nothing but his troubles
made him say. He didn't mean anything by it; only the honourable
sir did not know what it was to be ruined, broken down, trampled
upon. After this introduction he approached the matter near his
heart, but in such a rambling, ejaculatory, craven fashion, that for
a long time I couldn't make out what he was driving at. He wanted
me to intercede with Jim in his favour. It seemed, too, to be some
sort of money affair. I heard time and again the words, "Moderate
provision -- suitable present." He seemed to be claiming value for
something, and he even went the length of saying with some warmth
that life was not worth having if a man were to be robbed of every-
thing. I did not breathe a word, of course, but neither did I stop
my ears. The gist of the affair, which became clear to me gradually,
was in this, that he rgarded himself as entitled to some money in
exchange for the girl. He had brought her up. Somebody else's
child. Great trouble and pains -- old man now -- suitable present. If
the honourable sir would say a word.... I stood still to look at
him with curiosity, and fearful lest I should think him extortionate,
I suppose, he hastily brought himself to make a concession. In
consideration of a "suitable present" given at once, he would, he
declared, be willing to undertake the charge of the girl, "without
any other provision -- when the time came for the gentleman to go
home." His little yellow face, all crumpled as though it had been
squeezed together, expressed the most anxious, eager avarice. His
voice whined coaxingly, "No more trouble -- natural guardian -- a
sum of money . . . "
  'I stood there and marvelled. That kind of thing, with him, was
evidently a vocation. I discovered suddenly in his cringing attitude a
sort of assurance, as though he had been all his life dealing in certi-
tudes. He must have thought I was dispassionately considering his
proposal, because he became as sweet as honey. "Every gentleman
made a provision when the time came to go home,"he began insinuat-
ingly. I slammed the little gate. "In this case, Mr. Cornelius," I said,
"the time will never come." He took a few seconds to gather this in.
"What!"he fairly squealed. "Why," I continued from my side of the
gate,"haven't you heard him say so himself? He will nevergo home."
"Oh! this is too much," he shouted. He would not address me as
"honoured sir" any more. He was very still for a time, and then with-
out a trace of humility began very low: "Never go -- ah! He -- he -- he
comes here devil knows from where -- comes here -- devil knows why --
to trample on me till I die -- ah -- trample" (he stamped softly with
both feet), "trample like this -- nobody knows why -- till I die.. .. "
His voice became quite extinct; he was bothered by a little cough; he
came up close to the fence and told me, dropping into a confidential
and piteous tone, that he would not be trampled upon. "Patience --
patience," he muttered, striking his breast. I had done laughing at
him, but unexpectedly he treated me to a wild cracked burst of it.
"Ha! ha! ha! We shall see! We shall see! What! Steal from me! Steal
from me everything! Everything! Everything! " His head drooped on
one shoulder, his hands were hanging before him lightly clasped. One
would have thought he had cherished the girl with surpassing love,
that his spirit had been crushed and his heart broken by the most cruel
of spoliations. Suddenly he lifted his head and shot out an infamous
word. "Like her mother -- she is like her deceitful mother. Exactly.
In her face too. In her face. The devil! " He leaned his forehead against
the fence, and in that position uttered threats and horrible blasphem-
ies in Portuguese in very weak ejaculations, mingled with miserable
plaints and groans, coming out with a heave of the shoulders as
though he had been overtaken by a deadly fit of sickness. It was an
inexpressibly grotesque and vile performance, and I hastened away.
He tried to shout something after me. Some disparagement of Jim, I
believe -- not too loud though, we were too near the house . All I heard
distinctly was, "No more than a little child -- a little child." '

                       CHAPTER 35

  'But next morning, at the first bend of the river shutting off the
houses of Patusan, all this dropped out of my sight bodily, with its
colour, its design, and its meaning, like a picture created by fancy on
a canvas, upon which, after long contemplation, you turn your back
for the last time. It remains in the memory motionless, unfaded, with
its life arrested, in an unchanging light. There are the ambitions, the
fears, the hate, the hopes, and they remain in my mind just as I had
seen them -- intense and as if for ever suspended in their expression.
I had turned away from the picture and was going back to the world
where events move, men change, light flickers, life flows in a clear
stream, no matter whether over mud or over stones . I wasn't going to
dive into it; I would have enough to do to keep my head above the
surface. But as to what I was leaving behind, I cannot imagine any
alteration. The immense and magnanimous Doramin and his little
motherly witch of a wife, gazing together upon the land and nursing
secretly their dreams of parental ambition; Tunku Allang, wizened
and gready perplexed; Dain Waris, intelligent und brave, with his
faith in Jim, with his firm glance und his ironic friendliness; the girl,
absorbed in her frightened, suspicious adoration; Tumb' Itam, surly
and faithful; Cornelius, leaning his forehead against the fence under
the moonlight -- I am certain of them. They exist as if under un ench-
anter's wand. But the figure round which all these are grouped -- that
one lives, and I am not certain of him. No magician's wand can
immobilise him under my eyes. He is one of us.
  'Jim, as I've told you, accompanied me on the first stage of my
journey back to the world he had renounced, and the way at times
seemed to lead through the very heart of untouched wilderness. The
empty reaches sparkled under the high sun; between the high walls
of vegetation the heat drowsed upon the water, and the boat,impelled
vigorously, cut her way through the air that seemed to have settled
dense and warm under the shelter of lofty trees.
  'The shadow of the impending separation had already put an
immense space between us, und when we spoke it was with an effort,
as if to force our low voices across a vast und increasing distance. The
boat fairly flew; we sweltered side by side in the stagnant superheated
air; the smell of mud, of mush, the primeval smell of fecund earth,
seemed to sting our faces; till suddenly at a bend it was as if a great
hand far away had lifted a heavy curtain, had flung open un immense
portal. The light itself seemed to stir, the sky above our heads wid-
ened, a far-off murmur reached our ears, a freshness enveloped us,
filled our lungs, quickened our thoughts, our blood, our regrets --
and, straight ahead, the forests sank down against the dark-blue ridge
of the sea.
  'I breathed deeply, I revelled in the vastness of the opened horizon,
in the different atmosphere that seemed to vibrate with the toil of life,
with the energy of an impeccable world. This sky and this sea were
open to me. The girl was right -- there was a sign, a call in them --
something to which I responded with every fibre of my being. I let
my eyes roam through space, like a man released from bonds who
stretches his cramped limbs, runs, leaps, responds to the inspiring
elation of freedom. "This is glorious!" I cried, und then I looked at
the sinner by my side . He sat with his head sunk on his breast and said
"Yes," without raising his eyes, as if afraid to see writ large on the
clear sky of the offing the reproach of his romantic conscience.
  'I remember the smallest details of that afternoon. We landed on a
bit of white beach. It was backed by a low cliff wooded on the brow,
draped in creepers to the very foot. Below us the plain of the sea, of
a serene and intense blue, stretched with a slight upward tilt to the
thread-like horizon drawn at the height of our eyes. Great waves of
glitter blew lightly along the pitted dark surface, as swift as feathers
chased by the breeze . A chain of islands sat broken and massive facing
the wide estuary, displayed in a sheet of pale glassy water reflecting
faithfully the contour of the shore. High in the colourless sunshine a
solitary bird, all black, hovered, dropping and soaring above the
same spot with a slight rocking motion of the wings. A ragged, sooty
bunch of flimsy mat hovels was perched over its own inverted image
upon a crooked multitude of high piles the colour of ebony. A tiny
black canoe put off from amongst them with two tiny men, all black,
who toiled exceedingly, striking down at the pale water: and the
canoe seemed to slide painfully on a mirror. This bunch of miserable
hovels was the fishing village that boasted of the white lord's especial
protection, and the two men crossing over were the old headman and
his son-in-law. They landed and walked up to us on the white sand,
lean, dark-brown as if dried in smoke, with ashy patches on the skin
of their naked shoulders and breasts . Their heads were bound in dirty
but carefully folded headkerchiefs, and the old man began at once to
state a complaint, voluble, stretching a lank arm, screwing up at Jim
his old bleared eyes confidently . The Rajah's people would not leave
them alone; there had been some trouble about a lot of turtles' eggs
his people had collected on the islets there -- and leaning at arm's-
length upon his paddle, he pointed with a brown skinny hand over
the sea. Jim listened for a time without looking up, und at last told
him gently to wait. He would hear him by-and-by. They withdrew
obediently to some little distance, and sat on their heels, with their
paddles lying before them on the sand; the silvery gleams in their
eyes followed our movements patiently; and the immensity of the
outspread sea, the stillness of the coast, passing north and south
beyond the limits of my vision, made up one colossal Presence watch-
ing us four dwarfs isolated on a strip of glistening sand.
  ' "The trouble is," remarked Jim moodily, "that for generations
these beggars of fishermen in that village there had been considered
as the Rajah's personal slaves -- and the old rip can't get it into his head
that . . ."
  'He paused. "That you have changed all that," I said.
  ' "Yes I've changed all that," he muttered in a gloomy voice.
  ' "You have had your opportunity," I pursued.
  ' "Have I?" he said. "Well, yes. I suppose so. Yes. I have got back
my confidence in myself -- a good name -- yet sometimes I wish . . .
No! I shall hold what I've got. Can't expect anything more." He flung
his arm out towards the sea. "Not out there anyhow." He stamped
his foot upon the sand. "This is my limit, because nothing less will
do."
  'We continued pacing the beach. "Yes, I've changed all that," he
went on, with a sidelong glance at the two patient squatting fisher-
men; "but only try to think what it would be if I went away. Jove! can't
you see it? Hell loose. No! To-morrow I shall go and take my chance
of drinking that silly old Tunku Allung's coffee, und I shall make no
end of fuss over these rotten turtles' eggs. No. I cun't say -- enough.
Never. I must go on, go on for ever holding up my end, to feel sure
that nothing can touch me. I must stick to their belief in me to feel
safe and to -- to" . . . He cast about for a word, seemed to look for it
on the sea . . . "to keep in touch with" . . . His voice sank suddenly
to a murmur . . . "with those whom, perhaps, I shall never see any
more. "With -- with -- you, for instunce."
  'I was profoundly humbled by his words. "For God's sake," I said,
"don't set me up, my dear fellow; just look to yourself." I felt a grati-
tude, an affection, for that straggler whose eyes had singled me out,
keeping my place in the ranks of an insignificant multitude. How
little that was to boast of, after all! I turned my burning face away;
under the low sun, glowing, darkened and crimson, like un ember
snatched from the fire, the sea lay outspread, offering all its immense
stillness to the approach of the fiery orb. Twice he was going to speak,
but checked himself; at last, as if he had found a formula --
  ' "I shall be faithful," he said quietly. "I shall be faithful," he
repeated, without looking at me, but for the first time letting his eyes
wander upon the waters, whose blueness had changed to a gloomy
purple under the fires of sunset. Ah! he was romantic, romantic. I
recalled some words of Stein's.... "In the destructive element
immerse! . . . To follow the dream, and again to follow the dream --
and so -- always -- usque ad finem . . ." He was romantic, but none the
less true. Who could tell what forms, what visions, what faces, what
forgiveness he could see in the glow of the west! . . . A small boat,
leaving the schooner, moved slowly, with a regular beat of two oars,
towards the sandbank to take me off. "And then there's Jewel," he
said, out of the great silence of earth, sky, and sea, which had mas-
tered my very thoughts so that his voice made me start. "There's
Jewel. " "Yes," I murmured. "I need not tell you what she is to me,"
he pursued. "You've seen. In time she will come to understand . . . "
"I hope so," I interrupted. "She trusts me, too," he mused, and then
changed his tone. "When shall we meet next, I wonder?" he said.
  ' "Never -- unless you come out," I answered, avoiding his glance.
He didn't seem to be surprised; he kept very quiet for a while.
  ' "Good-bye, then," he said, after a pause. "Perhaps it's just as
well."
  'We shook hands, and I walked to the boat, which waited with her
nose on the beach. The schooner, her mainsail set and jib-sheet to
windward, curveted on the purple sea; there was a rosy tinge on her
sails. "Will you be going home again soon?" asked Jim, just as I
swung my leg over the gunwale. "In a yeu or so if I live," I said. The
forefoot grated on the sand, the boat floated, the wet oars flashed and
dipped once, twice. Jim, at the water's edge, raised his voice. "Tell
them . . . " he began. I signed to the men to cease rowing, and waited
in wonder. Tell who? The half-submerged sun faced him; I could
see its red gleam in his eyes that looked dumbly at me.... "No --
nothing," he said, and with a slight wave of his hand motioned the
boat away. I did not look again at the shore till I had clambered on
board the schooner.
  'By that time the sun had set. The twilight lay over the east, and
the coast, turned black, extended infinitely its sombre wall that
seemed the very stronghold of the night; the western horizon was one
great blaze of gold and crimson in which a big detached cloud floated
dark and still, casting a slaty shadow on the water beneath, and I saw
Jim on the beach watching the schooner fall off and gather headway.
  'The two half-naked fishermen had arisen as soon as I had gone;
they were no doubt pouring the plaint of their trifling, miserable,
oppressed lives into the ears of the white lord, a no doubt he was
listening to it, making it his own, for was it not a part of his luck -- the
luck "from the word Go" -- the luck to which he had assured me he
was so completely equal? They too, I should think, were in luck, and
I was sure their pertinacity would be equal to it. Their dark-skinned
bodies vanished on the dark background long before I had lost sight
of their protector. He was white from head to foot, and remained
persistently visible with the stronghold of the night at his back, the
sea at his feet, the opportunity by his side -- still veiled. What do you
say? Was it still veiled? I don't know. For me that white figure in the
stillness of coast and sea seemed to stand at the heart of a vast enigma.
The twilight was ebbing fast from the sky above his head, the strip of
sand had sunk already under his feet, he himself appeared no bigger
than a child -- then only a speck, a tiny white speck, that seemed to
catch all the light left in a darkened world .. .. And, suddenly, I lost
him. . ..

                              CHAPTER 36

  With these words Marlow had ended his narrative, and his audi-
ence had broken up forthwith, under his abstract, pensive gaze. Men
drifted off the verandah in pairs or alone without loss of time, without
offering a remark, as if the last image of that incomplete story, its
incompleteness itself, and the very tone of the speaker, had made
discussion vain and comment impossible. Each of them seemed to
carry away his own impression, to cary it away with him like a secret;
but there was only one man of all these listeners who was ever to hear
the last word of the story. It came to him at home, more than two years
later, and it came contained in a thick packet addressed in Marlow's
upright and angular handwriting.
  The privileged man opened the packet, looked in, then, laying it
down, went to the window. His rooms were in the highest flat of a
lofty building, and his glance could travel afar beyond the clear panes
of glass, as though he were looking out of the lantern of a lighthouse.
The slopes of the roofs glistened, the dark broken ridges succeeded
each other without end like sombre, uncrested waves, and from the
depths of the town under his feet ascended a confused and unceasing
mutter. The spires of churches, numerous, scattered haphazard,
uprose like beacons on a maze of shoals without a channel; the driving
rain mingled with the falling dusk of a winter's evening; and the
booming of a big clock on a tower, striking the hour, rolled past in
voluminous, austere bursts of sound, with a shrill vibrating cry at the
core. He drew the heavy curtains.
  The light of his shaded reading-lamp slept like a sheltered pool, his
footfalls made no sound on the carpet, his wandering days were over.
No more horizons as boundless as hope, no more twilights within the
forests as solemn as temples, in the hot quest for the Ever-undiscov-
ered Country over the hill, across the stream, beyond the wave. The
hour was striking! No more! No more! -- but the opened packet under
the lamp brought back the sounds, the visions, the very savour of the
past -- a multitude of fading faces, a tumult of low voices, dying away
upon the shores of distant seas under a passionate and unconsoling
sunshine. He sighed and sat down to read.
  At first he saw three distinct enclosures. A good many pages closely
blackened and pinned together; a loose square sheet of greyish paper
with a few words traced in a handwriting he had never seen before,
and an explanatory letter from Marlow. From this last fell another
letter, yellowed by time and frayed on the folds. He picked it up and,
laying it aside, turned to Marlow's message, ran swiftly over the open-
ing lines, and, checking himself, thereafter read on deliberately, like
one approaching with slow feet and alert eyes the glimpse of an undis-
covered country.
  '. . . I don't suppose you've forgotten,' went on the letter. 'You
alone have showed an interest in him that survived the telling of his
story, though I remember well you would not admit he had mastered
his fate. You prophesied for him the disaster of weariness and of dis-
gust with acquired honour, with the self-appointed task, with the
love sprung from pity and youth. You had said you knew so well "that
kind of thing," its illusory satisfaction, its unavoidable deception.
You said also -- I call to mind -- that "giving your life up to them" (them
meaning all of mankind with skins brown, yellow, or black in colour)
"was like selling your soul to a brute." You contended that "that kind
of thing" was only endurable and enduring when based on a firm con-
viction in the truth of ideas racially our own, in whose name are estab-
lished the order, the morality of an ethical progress. "We want its
strength at our backs," you had said. "We want a belief in its necessity
and its justice, to make a worthy and conscious sacrifice of our lives.
Without it the sacrifice is only forgetfulness, the way of offering is no
better than the way to perdition." In other words, you maintained
that we must fight in the ranks or our lives don't count. Possibly! You
ought to know -- be it said without malice -- you who have rushed
into one or two places single-handed and came out cleverly, without
singeing your wings. The point, however, is that of all mankind Jim
had no dealings but with himself, and the question is whether at the
last he had not confessed to a faith mightier than the laws of order and
progress.
  'I affirm nothing. Perhaps you may pronounce -- after you've read.
There is much truth -- after all -- in the common expression "under a
cloud." It is impossible to see him clearly -- especially as it is through
the eyes of others that we take our last look at him. I have no hesitation
in imparting to you all I know of the last episode that, as he used to
say, had "come to him." One wonders whether this was perhaps that
supreme opportunity, that last and satisfying test for which I had
always suspected him to be waiting, before he could frame a message
to the impeccable world. You remember that when I was leaving him
for the last time he had asked whether I would be going home soon,
and suddenly cried after me, "Tell them . . ." I had waited -- curious
I'll own, and hopeful too -- only to hear him shout, "No -- nothing."
That was all then -- and there will be nothing more; there will be no
message, unless such as each of us can interpret for himself from the
language of facts, that are so often more enigmatic than the craftiest
arrangement of words. He made, it is true, one more attempt to
deliver himself; but that too failed, as you may perceive if you look at
the sheet of greyish foolscap enclosed here. He had tried to write; do
you notice the commonplace hand? It is headed "The Fort, Patu-
sun." I suppose he had carried out his intention of making out of his
house a place of defence. It was an excellent plan: a deep ditch, an
earth wall topped by a palisade, and at the angles guns mounted on
platforms to sweep each side of the square. Doramin had agreed to
furnish him the guns; and so each man of his party would know there
was a place of safety, upon which every faithful partisan could rally
in case of some sudden danger. All this showed his judicious fore-
sight, his faith in the future. What he called "my own people" -- the
liberated captives of the Sherif -- were to make a distinct quarter of
Patusan, with their huts and little plots of ground under the walls of
the stronghold. Within he would be an invincible host in himself
"The Fort, Patusan." No date, as you observe. What is a number and
a name to a day of days? It is also impossible to say whom he had in
his mind when he seized the pen: Stein -- myself -- the world at large --
or was this only the aimless startled cry of a solitary man confronted
by his fate? "An awful thing has happened," he wrote before he flung
the pen down for the first time; look at the ink blot resembling the
head of an arrow under these words. After a while he had tried again,
scrawling heavily, as if with a hand of lead, another line. "I must now
at once . . ." The pen had spluttered, and that time he gave it up.
There's nothing more; he had seen a broad gulf that neither eye nor
voice could span. I can understand this. He was overwhelmed by the
inexplicable; he was overwhelmed by his own personality -- the gift
of that destiny which he had done his best to master.
  'I send you also an old letter -- a very old letter. It was found care-
fully preserved in his writing-case. It is from his father, and by the
date you can see he must have received it a few days before he joined
the Patna. Thus it must be the last letter he ever had from home. He
had treasured it all these years. The good old parson fancied his sailor
son. I've looked in at a sentence here and there. There is nothing in it
except just affection. He tells his "dear James" that the last long letter
from him was very "honest and entertaining." He would not have
him "judge men harshly or hastily. " There are four pages of it, easy
morality and family news. Tom had "taken orders." Carrie's hus-
band had "money losses." The old chap goes on equably trusting
Providence and the established order of the universe, but alive to its
small dangers and its small mercies. One can almost see him, grey-
haired and serene in the inviolable shelter of his book-lined, faded,
and comfortable study, where for forty years he had conscientiously
gone over and over again the round of his little thoughts about faith
and virtue, about the conduct of life and the only proper manner of
dying; where he had written so many sermons, where he sits talking
to his boy, over there, on the other side of the earth. But what of the
distance? Virtue is one all over the world, and there is only one faith,
one conceivable conduct of life, one manner of dying. He hopes his
"dear James" will never forget that "who once gives way to temp-
tation, in the very instant hazards his total depravity and everlasting
ruin. Therefore resolve fixedly never, through any possible motives,
to do anything which you believe to be wrong." There is also some
news of a favourite dog; and a pony, "which all you boys used to ride,"
had gone blind from old age and had to be shot. The old chap invokes
Heaven's blessing; the mother and all the girls then at home send
their love.... No, there is nothing much in that yellow frayed letter
fluttering out of his cherishing grasp after so many years. It was never
answered, but who can say what converse he may have held with all
these placid, colourless forms of men and women peopling that quiet
corner of the world as free of danger or strife as a tomb, and breathing
equably the air of undisturbed rectitude. It seems amazing that he
should belong to it, he to whom so many things "had come. "Nothing
ever came to them; they would never be taken unawares, and never
be called upon to grapple with fate. Here they all are, evoked by the
mild gossip of the father, all these brothers and sisters, bone of his
bone and flesh of his flesh, gazing with clear unconscious eyes, while
I seem to see him, returned at last, no longer a mere white speck at
the heart of an immense mystery, but of full stature, standing disre-
garded amongst their untroubled shapes, with a stern and romantic
aspect, but always mute, dark -- under a cloud.
  'The story of the last events you will find in the few pages enclosed
here. You must admit that it is romantic beyond the wildest dreams
of his boyhood, and yet there is to my mind a sort of profound and
terrifying logic in it, as if it were our imagination alone that could
set loose upon us the might of an overwhelming destiny. The
imprudence of our thoughts recoils upon our heads; who toys with
the sword shall perish by the sword. This astounding adventure,
of which the most astounding part is that it is true, comes on as an
unavoidable consequence. Something of the sort had to happen.
You repeat this to yourself while you marvel that such a thing could
happen in the year of grace before last. But it has happened -- and
there is no disputing its logic.
  'I put it down here for you as though I had been an eyewitness.
My information was fragmentary, but I've fitted the pieces together,
and there is enough of them to make an intelligible picture. I wonder
how he would bave related it himself. He has confided so much in
me that at times it seems as though he must come in presently and
tell the story in his own words, in his careless yet feeling voice, with
his offhand manner, a little puzzled, a little bothered, a little hurt,
but now and then by a word or a phrase giving one of these glimpses
of his very own self that were never any good for purposes of orien-
tation. It's difficult to believe he will never come. I shall never hear
his voice again, nor shall I see his smooth tan-and-pink face with a
white line on the forehead, and the youthful eyes darkened by
excitement to a profound, unfathomable blue.'

                          CHAPTER 37

  'It all begins with a remarkable exploit of a man called Brown,
who stole with complete success a Spanish schooner out of a small
bay near Zamboanga. Till I discovered the fellow my information
was incomplete, but most unexpectedly I did come upon him a few
hours before he gave up his arrogant ghost. Fortunately he was
willing and able to talk between the choking fits of asthma, and his
racked body writhed with malicious exultation at the bare thought
of Jim. He exulted thus at the idea that he had "paid out the stuck-
up beggar after all." He gloated over his action. I had to bear the
sunken glare of his fierce crow-footed eyes if I wanted to know; and
so I bore it, reflecting how much certain forms of evil are akin
to madness, derived from intense egoism, inflamed by resistance,
tearing the soul to pieces, and giving factitious vigour to the body.
The story also reveals unsuspected depths of cunning in the
wretched Cornelius, whose abject and intense hate acts like a subtle
inspiration, pointing out an unerring way towards revenge.
  ' "I could see directly I set my eyes on him what sort of a fool he
was," gasped the dying Brown. "He a man! Hell! He was a hollow
sham. As if he couldn't have said straight out, 'Hands off my plun-
der!' blast him! That would have been like a man! Rot his superior
soul! He had me there -- but he hadn't devil enough in him to make
an end of me. Not he! A thing like that letting me off as if I wasn't
worth a kick! ..." Brown struggled desperately for breath....
"Fraud.... Letting me off.... And so I did make an end of him
after all...." He choked again.... "I expect this thing'll kill me,
but I shall die easy now. You . . . you here . . . I don't know your
name -- I would give you a five-pound note if -- if I had it -- for the
news -- or my name's not Brown...." He grinned horribly....
"Gentleman Brown."
  'He said all these things in profound gasps, staring at me with
his yellow eyes out of a long, ravaged, brown face; he jerked his left
arm; a pepper-and-salt matted beard hung almost into his lap; a
dirty ragged blanket covered his legs. I had found him out in Ban-
kok through that busybody Schomberg, the hotel-keeper, who had,
confidentially, directed me where to look. It appears that a sort of
loafing, fuddled vagabond -- a white man living amongst the natives
with a Siamese woman -- had considered it a great privilege to give
a shelter to the last days of the famous Gentleman Brown. While
he was talking to me in the wretched hovel, and, as it were, fighting
for every minute of his life, the Siamese woman, with big bare legs
and a stupid coarse face, sat in a dark corner chewing betel stolidly.
Now and then she would get up for the purpose of shooing a chicken
away from the door. The whole hut shook when she walked. An
ugly yellow child, naked and pot-bellied like a little heathen god,
stood at the foot of the couch, finger in mouth, lost in a profound
and calm contemplation of the dying man.
  'He talked feverishly; but in the middle of a word, perhaps, an
invisible hand would take him by the throat, and he would look at
me dumbly with an expression of doubt and anguish. He seemed
to fear that I would get tired of waiting and go away, leaving him
with his tale untold, with his exultation unexpressed. He died dur-
ing the night, I believe, but by that time I had nothing more to
learn.
  'So much as to Brown, for the present.
  'Eight months before this, coming into Samarang, I went as usual
to see Stein. On the garden side of the house a Malay on the veran-
dah greeted me shyly, and I remembered that I had seen him in
Patusan, in Jim's house, amongst other Bugis men who used to
come in the evening to talk interminably over their war remi-
niscences and to discuss State affairs. Jim had pointed him out to
me once as a respectable petty trader owning a small seagoing native
craft, who had showed himself "one of the best at the taking of the
stockade. " I was not very surprised to see him, since any Patusan
trader venturing as far as Samarang would naturally find his way to
Stein's house. I returned his greeting and passed on. At the door of
Stein's room I came upon another Malay in whom I recognised
Tamb' Itam.
  'I asked him at once what he was doing there; it occurred to me
that Jim might have come on a visit. I own I was pleased and excited
at the thought. Tumb' Itam looked as if he did not know what to say.
"Is Tuan Jim inside?" I asked impatiently. "No," he mumbled,
hanging his head for a moment, and then with sudden earnestness,
"He would not fight. He would not fight," he repeated twice. As
he seemed unable to say unything else, I pushed him aside and went
in,
  'Stein, tall and stooping, stood alone in the middle of the room
between the rows of butterfly cases. "Ach! is it you, my friend?"
he said sadly, peering through his glasses. A drab sack-coat of alpaca
hung, unbuttoned, down to his knees. He had a Panama hat on his
head, and there were deep furrows on his pale cheeks. "What's the
matter now?" I asked nervously. "There's Tamb' Itam there...."
"Come and see the girl. Come and see the girl. She is here," he
said, with a half-hearted show of activity. I tried to detain him, but
with gentle obstinacy he would take no notice of my eager questions.
"She is here, she is here," he repeated, in great perturbation. "They
came here two days ago. An old man like me, a stranger -- sehen
Sie -- cannot do much.... Come this way.... Young hearts are
unforgiving...." I could see he was in utmost distress.... "The
strength of life in them, the cruel strength of life...." He mum-
bled, leading me round the house; I followed him, lost in dismal
and angry conjectures. At the door of the drawing-room he barred
my way. "He loved her very much," he said interrogatively, and I
only nodded, feeling so bitterly disappointed that I would not trust
myself to speak . "Very frightful," he murmured. "She can' t under-
stand me. I am only a strange old man. Perhaps you . . . she knows
you. Talk to her. We can't leave it like this. Tell her to forgive him.
It was very frightful." "No doubt," I said, exasperated at being in
the dark; "but have you forgiven him?" He looked at me queerly.
"You shall hear," he said, and opening the door, absolutely pushed
me in.
  'You know Stein's big house and the two immense reception-
rooms, uninhabited and uninhabitable, clean, full of solitude und
of shining things that look as if never beheld by the eye of man?
They are cool on the hottest days, and you enter them as you would
a scrubbed cave underground. I passed through one, and in the
other I saw the girl sitting at the end of a big mahogany table, on
which she rested her head, the face hidden in her arms. The waxed
floor reflected her dimly as though it had been a sheet of frozen
water. The rattan screens were down, and through the strange
greenish gloom made by the foliage of the trees outside a strong
wind blew in gusts, swaying the long draperies of windows and
doorways. Her white figure seemed shaped in snow; the pendent
crystals of a great chandelier clicked above her head like glittering
icicles. She looked up and watched my approach. I was chilled as
if these vast apartments had been the cold abode of despair.
  'She recognised me at once, and as soon as I had stopped, looking
down at her: "He has left me," she said quietly; "you always leave
us -- for your own ends." Her face was set. All the heat of life seemed
withdrawn within some inaccessible spot in her breast. "It would
have been easy to die with him," she went on, and made a slight
weary gesture as if giving up the incomprehensible. "He would not!
It was like a blindness -- and yet it was I who was speaking to him;
it was I who stood before his eyes; it was at me that he looked all
the time! Ah! you are hard, treacherous, without truth, without
compassion. What makes you so wicked? Or is it that you are all
mad?"
  'I took her hand; it did not respond, and when I dropped it, it
hung down to the floor. That indifference, more awful than tears,
cries, and reproaches, seemed to defy time and consolation. You
felt that nothing you could say would reach the seat of the still and
benumbing pain.
  'Stein had said, "You shall hear." I did hear. I heard it all,
listening with amazement, with awe, to the tones of her inflexible
weariness. She could not grasp the real sense of what she was telling
me, and her resentment filled me with pity for her -- for him too. I
stood rooted to the spot after she had finished. Leaning on her arm,
she stared with hard eyes, and the wind passed in gusts, the crystals
kept on clicking in the greenish gloom. She went on whispering to
herself: "And yet he was looking at me! He could see my face, hear
my voice, hear my grief! When I used to sit at his feet, with my
cheek against his knee and his hand on my head, the curse of cruelty
and madness was already within him, waiting for the day. The day
came! . . . and before the sun had set he could not see me any
more -- he was made blind and deaf and without pity, as you all are.
He shall have no tears from me. Never, never. Not one tear. I will
not! He went away from me as if I had been worse than death. He
fled as if driven by some accursed thing he had heard or seen in his
sleep...."
  'Her steady eyes seemed to strain after the shape of a man torn
out of her arms by the strength of a dream. She made no sign to my
silent bow. I was glad to escape.
  'I saw her once again, the same afternoon. On leaving her I had
gone in search of Stein, whom I could not find indoors; and I
wandered out, pursued by distressful thoughts, into the gardens,
those famous gardens of Stein, in which you can find every plant
and tree of tropical lowlands. I followed the course of the canalised
stream, and sat for a long time on a shaded bench near the ornamen-
tal pond, where some waterfowl with clipped wings were diving
and splashing noisily. The branches of casuarina trees behind me
swayed lightly, incessantly, reminding me of the soughing of fir
trees at home.
  'This mournful and restless sound was a fit accompaniment to
my meditations. She had said he had been driven away from her by
a dream, -- and there was no answer one could make her -- there
seemed to be no forgiveness for such a transgression. And yet is not
mankind itself, pushing on its blind way, driven by a dream of its
greatness and its power upon the dark paths of excessive cruelty
and of excessive devotion? And what is the pursuit of truth, after
all?
  'When I rose to get back to the house I caught sight of Stein's
drab coat through a gap in the foliage, and very soon at a turn of
the path I came upon him walking with the girl. Her little hand
rested on his forearm, and under the broad, flat rim of his Panama
hat he bent over her, grey-haired, paternal, with compassionate and
chivalrous deference. I stood aside, but they stopped, facing me.
His gaze was bent on the ground at his feet; the girl, erect and slight
on his arm, stared sombrely beyond my shoulder with black, clear,
motionless eyes. "Schrecklich," he murmured. "Terrible! Terrible!
What can one do?" He seemed to be appealing to me, but her youth,
the length of the days suspended over her head, appealed to me
more; and suddenly, even as I realised that nothing could be said,
I found myself pleading his cause for her sake. "You must forgive
him," I concluded, and my own voice seemed to me muffled, lost
in un irresponsive deaf immensity. "We all want to be forgiven," I
added after a while.
  ' "What have I done?" she asked with her lips only.
  ' "You always mistrusted him," I said.
  ' "He was like the others," she pronounced slowly.
  ' "Not like the others," I protested, but she continued evenly,
without any feeling --
  ' "He was false." And suddenly Stein broke in. "No! no! no! My
poor child! . . ." He patted her hand lying passively on his sleeve.
"No! no! Not false! True! True! True!" He tried to look into her
stony face. "You don't understand. Ach! Why you do not under-
stand? . . . Terrible," he said to me. "Some day she shall under-
stand."
  ' "Will you explain?" I asked, looking hard at him. They moved
on.
  'I watched them. Her gown trailed on the path, her black hair
fell loose. She walked upright and light by the side of the tall man,
whose long shapeless coat hung in perpendicular folds from the
stooping shoulders, whose feet moved slowly. They disappeared
beyond that spinney (you may remember) where sixteen different
kinds of bamboo grow together, all distinguishable to the learned
eye. For my part, I was fascinated by the exquisite grace and beauty
of that fluted grove, crowned with pointed leaves and feathery
heads, the lightness, the vigour, the charm as distinct as a voice of
that unperplexed luxuriating life. I remember staying to look at it
for a long time, as one would linger within reach of a consoling
whisper. The sky was pearly grey. It was one of those overcast
days so rare in the tropics, in which memories crowd upon one --
memories of other shores, of other faces.
  'I drove back to town the same afternoon, taking with me Tamb'
Itam and the other Malay, in whose seagoing craft they had escaped
in the bewilderment, fear, and gloom of the disaster. The shock of
it seemed to have changed their natures. It had turned her passion
into stone, and it made the surly taciturn Tamb' Itam almost
loquacious. His surliness, too, was subdued into puzzled humility,
as though he had seen the failure of a potent charm in a supreme
moment. The Bugis trader, a shy hesitating man, was very clear in
the little he had to say. Both were evidently overawed by a sense of
deep inexpressible wonder, by the touch of an inscrutable mystery.'
There with Marlow's sigrature the letter proper ended. The
privileged reader screwed up his lump, and solitary above the bil-
lowy roofs of the town, like a lighthouse-keeper above the sea, he
turned to the pages of the story.

                        CHAPTER 38

  'It all begins, as I've told you, with the man called Brown,' ran
the opening sentence of Marlow's narrative. 'You who have
knocked about the Western Pacific must have heard of him. He was
the show ruffian on the Australian coast -- not that he was often to
be seen there, but because he was always trotted out in the stones
of lawless life a visitor from home is treated to; and the mildest of
these stories which were told about him from Cape York to Eden
Bay was more than enough to hang a man if told in the right place.
They never failed to let you know, too, that he was supposed to be
the son of a baronet. Be it as it may, it is certain he had deserted
from a home ship in the early gold-digging days, and in a few years
became talked about as the terror of this or that group of islands in
Polynesia. He would kidnap natives, he would strip some lonely
white trader to the very pyjamas he stood in, and after he had
robbed the poor devil, he would as likely as not invite him to fight
a duel with shot-guns on the beach -- which would have been fair
enough as these things go, if the other man hadn't been by that time
already half-dead with fright. Brown was a latter-day buccaneer,
sorry enough, like his more celebrated prototypes; but what dis-
tinguished him from his contemporary brother ruffians, like Bully
Hayes or the mellifluous Pease, or that perfumed, Dundreary-
whiskered, dandified scoundrel known as Dirty Dick, was the arro-
gant temper of his misdeeds and a vehement scorn for mankind at
large and for his victims in particular. The others were merely
vulgar and greedy brutes, but he seemed moved by some complex
intention. He would rob a man as if only to demonstrate his poor
opinion of the creature, and he would bring to the shooting or
maiming of some quiet, unoffending stranger a savage and vengeful
earnestness fit to terrify the most reckless of desperadoes. In the
days of his greatest glory he owned an armed barque, manned by a
mixed crew of Kanakas and runaway whalers, and boasted, I don't
know with what truth, of being financed on the quiet by a most
respectable firm of copra merchants. Later on he ran off -- it was
reported -- with the wife of a missionary, a very young girl from
Clapham way, who had married the mild, flat-footed fellow in a
moment of enthusiasm, and, suddenly transplanted to Melanesia,
lost her bearings somehow. It was a dark story. She was ill at the
time he carried her off, and died on board his ship. It is said -- as
the most wonderful put of the tale -- that over her body he gave
way to an outburst of sombre and violent grief. His luck left him,
too, very soon after. He lost his ship on some rocks off Malaita, and
disappeared for a time as though he had gone down with her. He is
heard of next at Nuka-Hiva, where he bought an old French
schooner out of Government service. What creditable enterprise he
might have had in view when he made that purchase I can't say,
but it is evident that what with High Commissioners, consuls, men-
of-war, and international control, the South Seas were getting too
hot to hold gentlemen of his kidney. Clearly he must have shifted
the scene of his operations farther west, because a year later he plays
an incredibly audacious, but not a very profitable part, in a serio-
comic business in Manila Bay, in which a peculating governor and
an absconding treasurer are the principal figures; thereafter he
seems to have hung around the Philippines in his rotten schooner
battling with un adverse fortune, till at last, running his appointed
course, he sails into Jim's history, a blind accomplice of the Dark
Powers.
  'His tale goes that when a Spanish patrol cutter captured him he
was simply trying to run a few guns for the insurgents. If so, then
I can't understand what he was doing off the south coast of Min-
danao. My belief, however, is that he was blackmailing the native
villages along the coast. The principal thing is that the cutter,
throwing a guard on board, made him sail in company towards
Zamboanga. On the way, for some reason or other, both vessels
had to call at one of these new Spanish settlements -- which never
came to anything in the end -- where there was not only a civil
official in charge on shore, but a good stout coasting schooner lying
at anchor in the little bay; and this craft, in every way much better
than his own, Brown made up his mind to steal.
  'He was down on his luck -- as he told me himself. The world he
had bullied for twenty years with fierce, aggressive disdain, had
yielded him nothing in the way of material advantage except a small
bag of silver dollars, which was concealed in his cabin so that "the
devil himself couldn't smell it out." And that was all -- absolutely
all. He was tired of his life, and not afraid of death. But this man,
who would stake his existence on a whim with a bitter and jeerlng
recklessness, stood in mortal fear of imprisonment. He had an
unreasoning cold-sweat, nerve-shaking, blood-to-water-turning
sort of horror at the bare posibility of being locked up -- the sort
of terror a superstitious man would feel at the thought ob being
embraced by a spectre. Therefore the civil official who came on
board to make a preliminary investigation into the capture, investi-
gated arduously all day long, and only went ashore after dark, muf-
fled up in a cloak, and taking great care not to let Brown's little all
clink in its bag. Afterwards, being a man of his word, he contrived
(the very next evening, I believe) to send off the Government cutter
on some urgent bit of special service. As her commander could not
spare a prize crew, he contented himself by taking away before he
left all the sails of Brown's schooner to the very last rag, and took
good care to tow his two boats on to the beach a couple of miles off.
  'But in Brown's crew there was a Solomon Islander, kidnapped
in his youth and devoted to Brown, who was the best man of the
whole gang. That fellow swam off to the coaster -- five hundred
yards or so -- with the end of a warp made up of all the running gear
unrove for the purpose. The water was smooth, and the bay dark,
"like the inside of a cow," as Brown described it. The Solomon
Islander clambered over the bulwarks with the end of the rope in
his teeth. The crew of the coaster -- all Tagals -- were ashore having
a jollification in the native village. The two shikeepers left on board
woke up suddenly and saw the devil. It had glittering eyes and
leaped quick as lightning about the deck. They fell on their knees,
paralysed with fear, crossing themselves and mumbling prayers.
With a long knife he found in the caboose the Solomon Islander,
without interrupting their orisons, stabbed first one, then the other;
with the same knife he st to sawing patiently at the coir table till
suddenly it parted under the blade with a splash. Then in the silence
of the bay he let out a cautious shout, and Brown's gang, who
meantime had been peering and straining their hopeful ears in the
darkness, began to pull gently at their end of the warp. In less than
five minutes the two schooners came together with a slight shock
and a creak of spars.
  'Brown's crowd trunsferred themselves without losing an instant,
taking with them their firearms and a large supply of ammunition.
They were sixteen in all: two runaway blue-jackets, a lanky deserter
from a Yankee man-of-war, a couple of simple, blond Scandina-
vians, a mulatto of sorts, one bland Chinaman who cooked -- and
the rest of the nondescript spawn of the South Seas. None of them
cared; Brown bent them to his will, and Brown, indifferent to gal-
lows, was running away from the spectre of a Spanish prison. He
didn't give them the time to trans-ship enough provisions; the
weather was calm, the air was charged with dew, and when they
cast off the ropes and set sail to a faint off-shore draught there was
no flutter in the damp canvas; their old schooner seemed to detach
itself gently from the stolen craft and slip away silently, together
with the black mass of the coast, into the night.
  'They got clear away. Brown related to me in detail their passage
down the Straits of Macassar. It is a harowing and desperate story.
They were short of food and water; they boarded several native
craft and got a little from each. With a stolen ship Brown did not
dare to put into any port, of course. He had no money to buy
anything, no papers to show, and no lie plausible enough to get him
out again. An Arab barque, under the Dutch flag, surprised one
night at anchor off Poulo Laut, yielded a little dirty rice, a bunch
of bananas, and a cask of water; three days of squally, misty weather
from the north-east shot the schooner across the Java Sea. The
yellow muddy waves drenched that collection of hungry ruffians.
They sighted mail-boats moving on their appointed routes; passed
well-found home ships with rusty iron sides anchored in the shallow
sea waiting for a change of weather or the turn of the tide; an English
gunboat, white and trim, with two slim masts, crossed their bows
one day in the distance; and on another occasion a Dutch corvette,
black and heavily sparred, loomed up on their quarter, steaming
dead slow in the mist. They slipped through unseen or disregarded,
a wan, sallow-faced band of utter outcasts, enraged with hunger
and hunted by fear. Brown's idea was to make for Madagascar,
where he expected, on grounds not altogether illusory, to sell the
schooner in Tamatave, and no questions asked, or perhaps obtain
some more or less forged papers for her. Yet before he could face
the long passage across the Indian Ocean food was wanted -- water
too.
  'Perhaps he had heard of Patusan -- or perhaps he just only hap-
pened to see the name written in small letters on the chart -- probably
that of a largish village up a river in a native state, perfectly defence-
less, far from the beaten tracks of the sea and from the ends of
submarine cables. He had done that kind of thing before -- in the
way of business; and this now was an absolute necessity, a question
of life and death -- or rather of liberty. Of liberty! He was sure to
get provisions -- bullocks -- rice -- sweet-potatoes. The sorry gang
licked their chops. A cargo of produce for the schooner perhaps
could be extorted -- and, who knows? -- some real ringing coined
money! Some of these chiefs and village headmen can be made to
part freely. He told me he would have roasted their toes rather than
be baulked. I believe him. His men believed him too. They didn't
cheer aloud, being a dumb pack, but made ready wolfishly.
  'Luck served him as to weather. A few days of calm would have
brought unmentionable horrors on board that schooner, but with
the help of land and sea breezes, in less thdan a week after clearing
the Sunda Straits, he anchored off the Batu Kring mouth within a
pistol-shot of the fishing village.
  'Fourteen of them packed into the schooner's long-boat (which
was big, having been used for cargo-work) and started up the river,
while two remained in charge of the schooner with food enough to
keep starvation off for ten days. The tide and wind helped, and early
one afternoon the big white boat under a ragged sail shouldered its
way before the sea breeze into Patusan Reach, manned by fourteen
assorted scarecrows glaring hungrily ahead, and fingering the
breech-blocks of cheap rifles. Brown calculated upon the terrifying
surprise of his appearance. They sailed in with the last of the flood;
the Rajah's stockade gave no sign; the first houses on both sides of
the stream seemed deserted. A few canoes were seen up the reach
in full flight. Brown was astonished at the size of the place. A
profound silence reigned. The wind dropped between the houses;
two oars were got out and the boat held on up-stream, the idea
being to effect a lodgment in the centre of the town before the
inhabitants could think of resistance.
  'It seems, however, that the headman of the fishing village at
Batu Kring had managed to send off a timely warning. When the
long-boat came abreast of the mosque (which Doramin had built:
a structure with gables and roof finials of carved coral) the open
space before it was full of people. A shout went up, and was followed
by a clash of gongs all up the river. From a point above two little
brass 6-pounders were discharged, and the round-shot came skip-
ping down the empty reach, spirting glittering jets of water in the
sunshine. In front of the mosque a shouting lot of men began firing
in volleys that whipped athwart the current of the river; an irregu-
lar, rolling fusillade was opened on the boat from both banks, and
Brown's men replied with a wild, rapid fire. The oars had been got
in.
  'The turn of the tide at high water comes on very quickly in that
river, and the boat in mid-stream, nearly hidden in smoke, began
to drift back stern foremost. Along both shores the smoke thickened
also, lying below the roofs in a level streak as you may see a long
cloud cutting the slope of a mountain. A tumult of war-cries, the
vibrating clang of gongs, the deep snoring of drums, yells of rage,
crashes of volley-firing, made an awful din, in which Brown sat
confounded but steady at the tiller, working himself into a fury of
hate and rage against those people who dared to defend themselves.
Two of his men had been wounded, and he saw his retreat cut off
below the town by some boats that had put off from Tunku Allang's
stockade. There were six of them, full of men. While he was thus
beset he perceived the entrance of the narrow creek (the same which
Jim had jumped at low water). It was then brim full. Steering the
long-boat in, they landed, and, to make a long story short, they
established themselves on a little knoll about 900 yards from the
stockade, which, in fact, they commanded from that position. The
slopes of the knoll were bare, but there were a few trees on the
summit. They went to work cutting these down for a breastwork,
and were fairly intrenched before dark; meantime the Rajah's boats
remained in the river with curious neutrality. When the sun set the
glue of many brushwood blazes lighted on the river-front, and
between the double line of houses on the land side threw into black
relief the roofs, the groups of slender palms, the heavy clumps of
fruit trees. Brown ordered the grass round his position to be fired;
a low ring of thin flames under the slow ascending smoke wriggled
rapidly down the slopes of the knoll; here and there a dry bush
caught with a tall, vicious roar. The conflagration made a clear zone
of fire for the rifles of the small party, and expired smouldering on
the edge of the forests and along the muddy bank of the creek. A
strip of jungle luxuriating in a damp hollow between the knoll and
the Rajah's stockade stopped it on that side with a great crackling
and detonations of bursting bamboo stems. The sky was sombre,
velvety, and swarming with stars. The blackened ground smoked
quietly with low creeping wisps, till a little breeze came on and blew
everything away. Brown expected an attack to be delivered as soon
as the tide had flowed enough again to enable the war-boats which
had cut off his retreat to enter the creek. At any rate he was sure
there would be an attempt to carry off his long-boat, which lay
below the hill, a dark high lump on the feeble sheen of a wet mud-
flat. But no move of any sort was made by the boats in the river.
Over the stockade and the Rajah's buildings Brown saw their lights
on the water. They seemed to be unchored across the stream. Other
lights afloat were moving in the reach, crossing and recrossing from
side to side. There were also lights twinkling motionless upon the
long walls of houses up the reach, as far as the bend, and more still
beyond, others isolated inland. The loom of the big fires disclosed
buildings, roofs, black piles as far as he could see. It was an immense
place. The fourteen desperate invaders lying flat behind the felled
trees raised their chins to look over at the stir of that town that
seemed to extend up-river for miles and swarm with thousands of
ungry men. They did not speak to each other. Now and then they
would hear a loud yell, or a single shot rang out, fired very far
somewhere. But round their position everything was still, dark,
silent. They seemed to be forgotten, as if the excitement keeping
awake all the population had nothing to do with them, as if they
had been dead already.'

                           CHAPTER 39

  'All the events of that night have a great importance, since they
brought about a situation which remained unchanged till Jim's
return. Jim had been away in the interior for more than a week,
and it was Dain Waris who had directed the first repulse. That brave
and intelligent youth ("who knew how to fight after the manner of
white men") wished to settle the business off-hand, but his people
were too much for him. He had not Jim's racial prestige and the
reputation of invincible, supernatural power. He was not the vis-
ible, tangible incarnation of unfailing truth and of unfailing victory.
Beloved, trusted, and admired as he was, he was still one of them,
while Jim was one of us. Moreover, the white man, a tower of
strength in himself, was invulnerable, while Dain Waris could be
killed. Those unexpressed thoughts guided the opinions of the chief
men of the town, who elected to assemble in Jim's fort for deliber-
ation upon the emergency, as if expecting to find wisdom and cour-
age in the dwelling of the absent white man. The shooting of
Brown's rufffians was so far good, or lucky, that there had been half-
a-dozen casualties amongst the defenders. The wounded were lying
on the verandah tended by their women-folk. The women and chil-
dren from the lower part of the town had been sent into the fort at
the first alarm. There Jewel was in command, very effficient and
high-spirited, obeyed by Jim's "own people," who, quitting in a
body their little settlement under the stockade, had gone in to form
the garrison. The refugees crowded round her; and through the
whole affair, to the very disastrous last, she showed an extraordinary
martial ardour. It was to her that Dain Waris had gone at once at
the first intelligence of danger, for you must know that Jim was the
only one in Patusan who possessed a store of gunpowder. Stein,
with whom he had kept up intimate relations by letters, had
obtained from the Dutch Government a special authorisation to
export five hundred kegs of it to Patusan. The powder-magazine
was a small hut of rough logs covered entirely with earth, and in
Jim's absence the girl had the key. In the council, held at eleven
o'clock in the evening in Jim's dining-room, she backed up Waris's
advice for immediate and vigorous action. I am told that she stood
up by the side of Jim's empty chair at the head of the long table and
made a warlike impassioned speech, which for the moment extorted
murmurs of approbation from the assembled headmen. Old Dora-
min, who had not showed himself outside his own gate for more
than a year, had been brought across with great difficulty. He was,
of course, the chief man there. The temper of the council was very
unforgiving, and the old man's word would have been decisive; but
it is my opinion that, well aware of his son's fiery courage, he dared
not pronounce the word. More dilatory counsels prevailed. A cer-
tain Haji Saman pointed out at great length that "these tyrannical
and ferocious men had delivered themselves to a certain death in
any case. They would stand fast on their hill and starve, or they
would try to regain their boat and be shot from ambushes across
the creek, or they would break and fly into the forest and perish
singly there." He argued that by the use of proper stratagems these
evil-minded strangers could be destroyed without the risk of a
battle, and his words had a great weight, especially with the Patusan
men proper. What unsettled the minds of the townfolk was the
failure of the Rajah's boats to act at the decisive moment. It was the
diplomatic Kassim who represented the Rajah at the council. He
spoke very little, listened smilingly, very friendly and impenetrable.
During the sitting messengers kept arriving every few minutes
almost, with reports of the invaders' proceedings. Wild and exag-
gerated rumours were flying: there was a large ship at the mouth of
the river with big guns and many more men -- some white, others
with black skins and of bloodthirsty appearance. They were coming
with many more boats to exterminate every living thing. A sense of
near, incomprehensible danger affected the common people. At one
moment there was a panic in the courtyard amongst the women;
shrieking; a rush; children crying -- Haji Sunan went out to quiet
them. Then a fort sentry fired at something moving on the river,
and nearly killed a villager bringing in his women-folk in a canoe
together with the best of his domestic utensils and a dozen fowls.
This caused more confusion. Meantime the palaver inside Jim's
house went on in the presence of the girl. Doramin sat fierce-faced,
heavy, looking at the speakers in turn, and breathing slow like a
bull. He didn't speak till the last, after Kassim had declared that
the Rajah's boats would be called in because the men were required
to defend his master's stockade. Dain Waris in his father's presence
would offer no opinion, though the girl entreated him in Jim's name
to speak out. She offered him Jim's own men in her anxiety to have
these intruders driven out at once. He only shook his head, after a
glance or two at Doramin. Finally, when the council broke up it had
been decided that the houses nearest the creek should be strongly
occupied to obtain the commund of the enemy's boat. The boat
itself was not to be interfered with openly, so that the robbers on
the hill should be tempted to embark, when a well-directed fire
would kill most of them, no doubt. To cut off the escape of those
who might survive, and to prevent more of them coming up, Dain
Waris was ordered by Doramin to take an armed party of Bugis
down the river to a certain spot ten miles below Patusan, und there
form a camp on the shore and blockade the stream with the canoes.
I don't believe for a moment that Doramin feared the arrival of
fresh forces. My opinion is that his conduct was guided solely by
his wish to keep his son out of harm's way. To prevent a rush
being made into the town the construction of a stockade was to be
commenced at daylight at the end of the street on the left bank.
The old nakhoda declared his intention to command there himself.
A distribution of powder, bullets, und percussion-caps was made
immediately under the girl's supervision. Several messengers were
to be dispatched in different directions after Jim, whose exact
whereabouts were unknown. These men started at dawn, but before
that time Kassim had managed to open communications with the
besieged Brown.
  'That accomplished diplomatist and confidant of the Rajah, on
leaving the fort to go back to his master, took into his boat Corne-
lius, whom he found slinking mutely amongst the people in the
courtyard. Kassim had a little plan of his own and wanted him for
an interpreter. Thus it came about that towards morning Brown,
reflecting upon the desperate nature of his position, heard from the
marshy overgrown hollow an amicable, quavering, strained voice
crying -- in English -- for permission to come up, under a promise
of personal safety and on a very important errand. He was over-
joyed. If he was spoken to he was no longer a hunted wild beast.
These friendly sounds took off at once the awful stress of vigilant
watchfulness as of so many blind men not knowing whence the
deathblow might come. He pretended a great reluctance. The voice
declared itself "a white man -- a poor, ruined, old man who had
been living here for years." A mist, wet and chilly, lay on the slopes
of the hill, and after some more shouting from one to the other,
Brown called out, "Come on, then, but alone, mind!" As a matter
of fact -- he told me, writhing with rage at the recollection of his
helplessness -- it made no difference. They couldn't see more than
a few yards before them, and no ueachery could make their position
worse. By-and-by Cornelius, in his week-day attire of a ragged dirty
shirt and pants, barefooted, with a broken-rimmed pith hat on his
head, was made out vaguely, sidling up to the defences, hesitating,
stopping to listen in a peering posture. "Come along! You are safe,"
yelled Brown, while his men stared. All their hopes of life became
suddenly centred in that dilapidated, mean newcomer, who in pro-
found silence clambered clumsily over a felled tree-trunk, and shiv-
ering, with his sour, mistrustful face, looked about at the knot of
bearded, anxious, sleepless desperadoes.
  'Half an hour's confidential talk with Cornelius opened Brown's
eyes as to the home affairs of Patusan. He was on the alert at once.
There were possibilities, immense possibilities; but before he would
talk over Cornelius's proposals he demanded that some food should
be sent up as a guarantee of good faith. Cornelius went off, creeping
sluggishly down the hill on the side of the Rajah's palace, and after
some delay a few of Tunku Allang's men came up, bringing a scanty
supply of rice, chillies, and dried fish. This was immeasurably bet-
ter than nothing. Later on Cornelius returned accompanying Kas-
sim, who stepped out with an air of perfect good-humoured
trustfulness, in sandals, and muffled up from neck to ankles in
dark-blue sheeting. He shook hands with Brown discreetly, and the
three drew aside for a conference. Brown's men, recovering their
confidence, were slapping each other on the back, and cast knowing
glances at their captain while they busied themselves with prep-
arations for cooking.
  'Kassim disliked Doramin and his Bugis very much, but he hated
the new order of things still more. It had occurred to him that these
whites, together with the Rajah's followers, could attack and defeat
the Bugis before Jim's return. Then, he reasoned, general defection
of the townfolk was sure to follow, and the reign of the white man
who protected poor people would be over. Afterwards the new allies
could be dealt with. They would have no friends. The fellow was
perfectly able to perceive the difference of character, and had seen
enough of white men to know that these newcomers were outcasts,
men without country. Brown preserved a stern and inscrutable
demeanour. When he first heard Cornelius's voice demanding
admittance, it brought merely the hope of a loophole for escape. In
less than an hour other thoughts were seething in his head. Urged
by an extreme necessity, he had come there to steal food, a few tons
of rubber or gum may be, perhaps a handful of dollars, and had
found himself enmeshed by deadly dangers. Now in consequence
of these overtures from Kassim he began to think of stealing the
whole country. Some confounded fellow had apparently accom-
plished something of the kind -- single-handed at that. Couldn't
have done it very well though. Perhaps they could work together --
squeeze everything dry and then go out quietly. In the course of his
negotiations with Kassim he became aware that he was supposed to
have a big ship with plenty of men outside. Kassim begged him
earnestly to have this big ship with his many guns and men brought
up the river without delay for the Rajah's service. Brown professed
himself willing, and on this basis the negotiation was carried on
with mutual distrust. Three times in the course of the morning the
courteous and active Kassim went down to consult the Rajah and
came up busily with his long stride. Brown, while bargaining, had
a sort of grim enjoyment in thinking of his wretched schooner, with
nothing but a heap of dirt in her hold, that stood for an armed ship,
and a Chinaman and a lame ex-beachcomber of Levuka on board,
who represented all his many men. In the afternoon he obtained
further doles of food, a promise of some money, and a supply of
mats for his men to make shelters for themselves. They lay down
and snored, protected from the burning sunshine; but Brown, sit-
ting fully exposed on one of the felled trees, feasted his eyes upon
the view of the town and the river. There was much loot there.
Cornelius, who had made himself at home in the camp, talked at
his elbow, pointing out the localities, imparting advice, giving his
own version of Jim's character, and commenting in his own fashion
upon the events of the last three years. Brown, who, apparently
indifferent and gazing away, listened with attention to every word,
could not make out clearly what sort of man this Jim could be.
"What's his name? Jim! Jim! That's not enough for a man's name."
"They call him," said Cornelius scornfully, "Tuan Jim here. As
you may say Lord Jim." "What is he? Where does he come from?"
inquired Brown. "What sort of man is he? Is he an Englishman?"
"Yes, yes, he's an Englishman. I am an Englishman too. From
Malacca. He is a fool. All you have to do is to kill him and then you
are king here. Everything belongs to him," explained Cornelius.
"It strikes me he may be made to share with somebody before very
long," commented Brown half aloud. "No, no. The proper way is
to kill him the first chance you get, and then you can do what you
like," Cornelius would insist earnestly. "I have lived for many years
here, and I am giving you a friend's advice."
  'In such converse and in gloating over the view of Patusan, which
he had determined in his mind should become his prey, Brown
whiled away most of the afternoon, his men, meantime, resting.
On that day Dain Waris's fleet of canoes stole one by one under the
shore farthest from the creek, and went down to close the river
against his retreat. Of this Brown was not aware, and Kassim, who
came up the knoll an hour before sunset, took good care not to
enlighten him. He wanted the white man's ship to come up the
river, and this news, he feared, would be discouraging. He was very
pressing with Brown to send the "order," offering at the same time
a trusty messenger, who for greater secrecy (as he explained) would
make his way by land to the mouth of the river and deliver the
"order" on board. After some reflection Brown judged it expedient
to tear a page out of his pocket-book, on which he simply wrote,
"We are getting on. Big job. Detain the man." The stolid youth
selected by Kassim for that service performed it faithfully, and was
rewarded by being suddenly tipped, head first, into the schooner's
empty hold by the ex-beachcomber and the Chinaman, who there-
upon hastened to put on the hatches. What became of him after-
wards Brown did not say.'

                        CHAPTER 40

  'Brown's object was to gain time by fooling with Kassim's diplo-
macy. For doing a real stroke of business he could not help thinking
the white man was the person to work with. He could not imagine
such a chap (who must be confoundedly clever after all to get hold
of the natives like that) refusing a help that would do away with the
necessity for slow, cautious, risky cheating, that imposed itself as
the only possible line of conduct for a single-handed man. He,
Brown, would offer him the power. No man could hesitate. Every-
thing was in coming to a clear understanding. Of course they would
share. The idea of there being a fort -- all ready to his hand -- a real
fort, with artillery (he knew this from Cornelius), excited him. Let
him only once get in and . . . He would impose modest conditions.
Not too low, though. The man was no fool, it seemed. They would
work like brothers till . . . till the time came for a quarrel and a
shot that would settle all accounts. With grim impatience of plunder
he wished himself to be talking with the man now. The land already
seemed to be his to tear to pieces, squeeze, and throw away. Mean-
time Kassim had to be fooled for the sake of food first -- and for a
second string. But the principal thing was to get something to eat
from day to day. Besides, he was not averse to begin fighting on
that Rajah's account, and teach a lesson to those people who had
received him with shots. The lust of battle was upon him.
  'I am sorry that I can't give you this part of the story, which of
course I have mainly from Brown, in Brown's own words. There
was in the broken, violent speech of that man, unveiling before
me his thoughts with the very hand of Death upon his throat, an
undisguised ruthlessness of purpose, a strange vengeful attitude
towards his own past, and a blind belief in the righteousness of his
will against all mankind, something of that feeling which could
induce the leader of a horde of wandering cut-throats to call himself
proudly the Scourge of God. No doubt the natural senseless fero-
city which is the basis of such a character was exasperated by failure
ill-luck, and the recent privations, as well as by the desperate posi-
tion in which he found himself; but what was most remarkable of
all was this, that while he planned treacherous alliances, had already
settled in his own mind the fate of the white man, and intrigued in
an overbearing, offhand manner with Kassim, one could perceive
that what he had really desired, almost in spite of himself, was to
play havoc with that jungle town which had defied him, to see it
strewn over with corpses and enveloped in flames. Listening to his
pitiless, panting voice, I could imagine how he must have looked at
it from the hillock, peopling it with images of murder and rapine.
The part nearest to the creek wore an abandoned aspect, though as
a matter of fact every house concealed a few armed men on the alert.
Suddenly beyond the stretch of waste ground, interspersed with
small patches of low dense bush, excavations, heaps of rubbish,
with trodden paths between, a man, solitary and looking very small,
strolled out into the deserted opening of the street between the
shut-up, dark, lifeless buildings at the end. Perhaps one of the
inhabitants, who had fled to the other bank of the river, coming
back for some object of domestic use. Evidently he supposed him-
self quite safe at that distance from the hill on the other side of the
creek. A light stockade, set up hastily, was just round the turn of
the street, full of his friends. He moved leisurely. Brown saw him,
and instantly called to his side the Yankee deserter, who acted as a
sort of second in command. This lanky, loose-jointed fellow came
forward, wooden-faced, trailing his rifle lazily. When he understood
what was wanted from him a homicidal and conceited smile
uncovered his teeth, making two deep folds down his sallow, leath-
ery cheeks. He prided himself on being a dead shot. He dropped on
one knee, and taking aim from a steady rest through the unlopped
branches of a felled tree, fired, and at once stood up to look. The
man, far away, turned his head to the report, made another step
forward, seemed to hesitate, and abruptly got down on his hands
and knees. In the silence that fell upon the sharp crack of the rifle,
the dead shot, keeping his eyes fixed upon the quarry, guessed that
"this there coon's health would never be a source of anxiety to his
friends any more." The man's limbs were seen to move rapidly
under his body in an endeavour to run on all-fours. In that empty
space arose a multitudinous shout of dismay and surprise. The man
sank flat, face down, and moved no more. "That showed them what
we could do," said Brown to me. "Struck the fear of sudden death
into them. That was what we wanted. They were two hundred to
one, and this gave them something to think over for the night. Not
one of them had an idea of such a long shot before. That beggar
belonging to the Rajah scooted down-hill with his eyes hanging out
of his head."
  'As he was telling me this he tried with a shaking hand to wipe
the thin foam on his blue lips. "Two hundred to one. Two hundred
to one ..strike terror ..terror, terror, I tell you..." His
own eyes were starting out of their sockets. He fell back, clawing
the air with skinny fingers, sat up again, bowed and hairy, glared
at me sideways like some man-beast of folk-lore, with open mouth
in his miserable and awful agony before he got his speech back after
that fit. There are sights one never forgets.
  'Furthermore, to draw the enemy's fire and locate such parties
as might have been hiding in the bushes along the creek, Brown
ordered the Solomon Islander to go down to the boat and bring an
oar, as you send a spaniel after a stick into the water. This failed,
and the fellow came back without a single shot having been fired at
him from anywhere. "There's nobody," opined some of the men.
It is "onnatural," remarked the Yankee. Kassim had gone, by that
time, very much impressed, pleased too, and also uneasy. Pursuing
his tortuous policy, he had dispatched a message to Dain Waris
warning him to look out for the white men's ship, which, he had
had information, was about to come up the river. He minimised its
strength and exhorted him to oppose its passage. This double-deal-
ing answered his purpose, which was to keep the Bugis forces div-
ided and to weaken them by fighting. On the other hand, he had in
the course of that day sent word to the assembled Bugis chiefs in
town, assuring them that he was trying to induce the invaders to
retire; his messages to the fort asked earnestly for powder for the
Rajah's men. It was a long time since Tunku Allang had had ammu-
nition for the score or so of old muskets rusting in their arm-racks
in the audience-hall. The open intercourse between the hill and the
palace unsettled all the minds. It was already time for men to take
sides, it began to be said. There would soon be much bloodshed,
and thereafter great trouble for many people. The social fabric of
orderly, peaceful life, when every man was sure of to-morrow, the
edifice raised by Jim's hands, seemed on that evening ready to
collapse into a ruin reeking with blood. The poorer folk were
already taking to the bush or flying up the river. A good many of
the upper class judged it necessary to go and pay their court to the
Rajah. The Rajah's youths jostled them rudely. Old Tunku Allang,
almost out of his mind with fear and indecision, either kept a sullen
silence or abused them violently for daring to come with empty
hands: they departed very much frightened; only old Doramin kept
his countrymen together and pursued his tactics inflexibly.
Enthroned in a big chair behind the improvised stockade, he issued
his orders in a deep veiled rumble, unmoved, like a deaf man, in
the flying rumours.
  'Dusk fell, hiding first the body of the dead man, which had been
left lying with arms outstretched as if nailed to the ground, and
then the revolving sphere of the night rolled smoothly over Patusan
and came to a rest, showering the glitter of countless worlds upon
the earth. Again, in the exposed part of the town big fires blazed
along the only street, revealing from distance to distance upon their
glares the falling straight lines of roofs, the fragments of wattled
walls jumbled in confusion, here and there a whole hut elevated in
the glow upon the vertical black stripes of a group of high piles
and all this line of dwellings, revealed in patches by the swaying
flames, seemed to flicker tortuously away up-river into the gloom
at the heart of the land. A great silence, in which the looms of
successive fires played without noise, extended into the darkness at
the foot of the hill; but the other bank of the river, all dark save for
a solitary bonfire at the river-front before the fort, sent out into the
air an increasing tremor that might have been the stamping of a
multitude of feet, the hum of many voices, or the fall of an
immensely distant waterfall. It was then, Brown confessed to me,
while, turning his back on his men, he sat looking at it all, that
notwithstanding his disdain, his ruthless faith in himself, a feeling
came over him that at last he had run his head against a stone wall.
Had his boat been afloat at the time, he believed he would have
tried to steal away, taking his chances of a long chase down the river
and of starvation at sea. It is very doubtful whether he would have
succeeded in getting away. However, he didn't try this. For another
moment he had a passing thought of trying to rush the town, but
he perceived very well that in the end he would find himself in the
lighted street, where they would be shot down like dogs from the
houses. They were two hundred to one -- he thought, while his men,
huddling round two heaps of smouldering embers, munched the
last of the bananas and roasted the few yams they owed to Kassim's
diplomacy. Cornelius sat amongst them dozing sulkily.
  'Then one of the whites remembered that some tobacco had been
left in the boat, and, encouraged by the impunity of the Solomon
Islander, said he would go to fetch it. At this all the others shook
off their despondency. Brown applied to, said, "Go, and be d -- d
to you," scornfully. He didn't think there was any danger in going
to the creek in the dark. The man threw a leg over the tree-trunk
and disappeared. A moment later he was heard clambering into the
boat and then clambering out. "I've got it," he cried. A flash and
a report at the very foot of the hill followed. "I am hit," yelled the
man. "Look out, look out -- I am hit," and instantly all the rifles
went off. The hill squirted fire and noise into the night like a little
volcano, and when Brown and the Yankee with curses and cuffs
stopped the panic-stricken firing, a profound, weary groan floated
up from the creek, succeeded by a plaint whose heartrending sad-
ness was like some poison turning the blood cold in the veins. Then
a strong voice pronounced several distinct incomprehensible words
somewhere beyond the creek. "Let no one fire," shouted Brown.
"What does it mean?" . . . "Do you hear on the hill? Do you hear?
Do you hear?" repeated the voice three times. Cornelius translated,
and then prompted the answer. "Speak," cried Brown, "we hear."
Then the voice, declaiming in the sonorous inflated tone of a herald,
and shifting continually on the edge of the vague waste-land, pro-
claimed that between the men of the Bugis nation living in Patusan
and the white men on the hill and those with them, there would be
no faith, no compassion, no speech, no peace. A bush rustled;
a haphazard volley rang out. "Dam' foolishness," muttered the
Yankee, vexedly grounding the butt. Cornelius translated. The
wounded man below the hill, after crying out twice, "Take me up!
take me up!" went on complaining in moans. While he had kept on
the blackened earth of the slope, and afterwards crouching in the
boat, he had been safe enough. It seems that in his joy at finding
the tobacco he forgot himself and jumped out on her off-side, as it
were. The white boat, lying high and dry, showed him up; the
creek was no more than seven yards wide in that place, and there
happened to be a man crouching in the bush on the other bank.
  'He was a Bugis of Tondano only lately come to Patusan, and a
relation of the man shot in the afternoon. That famous long shot
had indeed appalled the beholders. The man in utter security had
been struck down, in full view of his friends, dropping with a joke
on his lips, and they seemed to see in the act an atrocity which had
stirred a bitter rage. That relation of his, Si-Lapa by nume, was
then with Doramin in the stockade only a few feet away. You who
know these chaps must admit that the fellow showed an unusual
pluck by volunteering to carry the message, alone, in the dark.
Creeping across the open ground, he had deviated to the left und
found himself opposite the boat. He was startled when Brown's
man shouted. He came to a sitting position with his gun to his
shoulder, and when the other jumped out, exposing himself, he
pulled the trigger and lodged three jagged slugs point-blank into
the poor wretch's stomach. Then, lying flat on his face, he gave
himself up for dead, while a thin hail of lead chopped and swished
the bushes close on his right hand; afterwards he delivered his
speech shouting, bent double, dodging all the time in cover. With
the last word he leaped sideways, lay close for a while, and after-
wards got back to the houses unharmed, having achieved on that
night such a renown as his children will not willingly allow to die.
  'And on the hill the forlorn band let the two little heaps of embers
go out under their bowed heads. They sat dejected on the ground
with compressed lips and downcast eyes, listening to their comrade
below. He was a strong man and died hard, with moans now loud,
now sinking to a strange confidential note of pain. Sometimes he
shrieked, and again, after a period of silence, he could be heard
muttering deliriously a long and unintelligible complaint. Never
for a moment did he cease.
  ' "What's the good?" Brown had said unmoved once, seeing the
Yankee, who had been swearing under his breath, prepare to go
down. "That's so," assented the deserter, reluctantly desisting.
"There's no encouragement for wounded men here. Only his noise
is calculated to make all the others think too much of the hereafter,
cap'n." "Water!" cried the wounded mun in an extraordinarily
clear vigorous voice, and then went off moaning feebly. "Ay, water.
Water will do it," muttered the other to himself, resignedly.
"Plenty by-and-by. The tide is flowing."
  'At last the tide flowed, silencing the plaint and the cries of pain,
and the dawn was near when Brown, sitting with his chin in the
palm of his hand before Patusan, as one might stare at the unscalable
side of a mountain, heard the brief ringing bark of a brass 6-pounder
far away in town somewhere. "What's this?" he asked of Cornelius,
who hung about him. Cornelius listened. A muffled roaring shout
rolled down-river over the town; a big drum began to throb, and
others responded, pulsating and droning. Tiny scattered lights
began to twinkle in the dark half of the town, while the part lighted
by the loom of fires hummed with a deep and prolonged murmur.
"He has come," said Cornelius. "What? Already? Are you sure?"
Brown asked. "Yes! yes! Sure. Listen to the noise." "What are
they making that row about?" pursued Brown. "For joy," snorted
Cornelius; "he is a very great man, but all the same, he knows no
more than a child, and so they make a great noise to please him,
because they know no better." "Look here," said Brown, "how is
one to get at him?" "He shall come to talk to you," Cornelius
declared. "What do you mean? Come down here strolling as it
were?" Cornelius nodded vigorously in the dark. "Yes. He will
come straight here and talk to you. He is just like a fool. You shall
see what a fool he is." Brown was incredulous. "You shall see; you
shall see," repeated Cornelius. "He is not afraid -- not afraid of
anything. He will come and order you to leave his people alone.
Everybody must leave his people alone. He is like a little child. He
will come to you straight." Alas! he knew Jim well -- that "mean
little skunk," as Brown called him to me. "Yes, certainly," he
pursued with ardour, "and then, captain, you tell that tall man
with a gun to shoot him. Just you kill him, and you will frighten
everybody so much that you can do anything you like with them
afterwards -- get what you like -- go away when you like. Ha! ha!
ha! Fine . . ." He almost danced with impatience and eagerness;
and Brown, looking over his shoulder at him, could see, shown up
by the pitiless dawn, his men drenched with dew, sitting amongst
the cold ashes and the litter of the camp, haggard, cowed, and in
rags.'

                        CHAPTER 41

  'To the very last moment, till the full day came upon them with
a spring, the fires on the west bank blazed bright and clear; and
then Brown saw in a knot of coloured figures motionless between
the advanced houses a man in European clothes, in a helmet, all
white. "That's him; look! look!" Cornelius said excitedly. All
Brown's men had sprung up and crowded at his back with lustreless
eyes. The group of vivid colours and dark faces with the white
figure in their midst were observing the knoll. Brown could see
naked arms being raised to shade the eyes and other brown arms
pointing. What should he do? He looked around, and the forests
that faced him on all sides walled the cock-pit of an unequal contest.
He looked once more at his men. A contempt, a weariness, the
desire of life, the wish to try for one more chance -- for some other
grave -- struggled in his breast. From the outline the figure pre-
sented it seemed to him that the white man there, backed up by all
the power of the land, was examining his position through binocu-
lars. Brown jumped up on the log, throwing his arms up, the palms
outwards. The coloured group closed round the white man, and
fell back twice before he got clear of them, walking slowly alone.
Brown remained standing on the log till Jim, appearing and disap-
pearing between the patches of thorny scrub, had nearly reached
the creek; then Brown jumped off and went down to meet him on
his side.
  'They met, I should think, not very far from the place, perhaps
on the very spot, where Jim took the second desperate leap of his
life -- the leap that landed him into the life of Patusan, into the trust,
the love, the confidence of the people. They faced each other across
the creek, and with steady eyes tried to understand each other
before they opened their lips. Their antagonism must have been
expressed in their glances; I know that Brown hated Jim at first
sight. Whatever hopes he might have had vanished at once. This
was not the man he had expected to see. He hated him for this --
and in a checked flannel shirt with sleeves cut off at the elbows,
grey bearded, with a sunken, sun-blackened face -- he cursed in
his heart the other's youth and assurance, his clear eyes and his
untroubled bearing. That fellow had got in a long way before him!
He did not look like a man who would be willing to give anything
for assistance. He had all the advantages on his side -- possession,
security, power; he was on the side of an overwhelming force! He
was not hungry and desperate, and he did not seem in the least
afraid. And there was something in the very neatness of Jim's
clothes, from the white helmet to the canvas leggings and the pipe-
clayed shoes, which in Brown's sombre irritated eyes seemed to
belong to things he had in the very shaping of his life contemned
and flouted.
  ' "Who are you?" asked Jim at last, speaking in his usual voice.
"My name's Brown," answered the other loudly; "Captain Brown.
What's yours?" and Jim after a little pause went on quietly, as If he
had not heard: "What made you come here?" "You want to know,"
said Brown bitterly. "It's easy to tell. Hunger. And what made
you?"
  ' "The fellow started at this," said Brown, relating to me the
opening of this strange conversation between those two men, separ-
ated only by the muddy bed of a creek, but standing on the opposite
poles of that conception of life which includes all mankind -- "The
fellow started at this and got very red in the face. Too big to be
questioned, I suppose. I told him that if he looked upon me as a
dead man with whom you may take liberties, he himself was not a
whit better off really. I had a fellow up there who had a bead drawn
on him all the time, and only waited for a sign from me. There was
nothing to be shocked at in this. He had come down of his own free
will. 'Let us agree,' said I, 'that we are both dead men, and let us
talk on that basis, as equals. We are all equal before death,' I said.
I admitted I was there like a rat in a trap, but we had been driven
to it, and even a trapped rat can give a bite. He caught me up in a
moment. 'Not if you don't go near the trap till the rat is dead.' I
told him that sort of game was good enough for these native friends
of his, but I would have thought him too white to serve even a rat
so. Yes, I had wanted to talk with him. Not to beg for my life,
though. My fellows were -- well -- what they were -- men like himself,
anyhow. All we wanted from him was to come on in the devil's
name and have it out. 'God d -- n it,' said I, while he stood there as
still as a wooden post, 'you don't want to come out here every day
with your glasses to count how many of us are left on our feet.
Come. Either bring your infernal crowd along or let us go out and
starve in the open sea, by God! You have been white once, for all
your tall talk of this being your own people and you being one with
them. Are you? And what the devil do you get for it; what is it
you've found here that is so d -- d precious? Hey? You don't want
us to come down here perhaps  -- do you? You are two hundred to
one. You don't want us to come down into the open. Ah! I promise
you we shall give you some sport before you've done. You talk
about me making a cowardly set upon unoffending people. What's
that to me that they are unoffending, when I am starving for next
to no offence? But I am not a coward. Don't you be one. Bring
them along or, by all the fiends, we shall yet manage to send half
your unoffending town to heaven with us in smoke!' "
  'He was terrible -- relating this to me -- this tortured skeleton of
a man drawn up together with his face over his knees, upon a
miserable bed in that wretched hovel, and lifting his head to look
at me with malignant triumph.
  ' "That's what I told him -- I knew what to say," he began again,
feebly at first, but working himself up with incredible speed into a
fiery utterance of his scorn. " 'We aren't going into the forest to
wander like a string of living skeletons dropping one after another
for ants to go to work upon us before we are fairly dead . Oh no! . . . '
'You don't deserve a better fate,' he said. 'And what do you
deserve,' I shouted at him, 'you that I find skulking here with your
mouth full of your responsibility, of innocent lives, of your infernal
duty? What do you know more of me than I know of you? I came
here for food. D'ye hear? -- food to fill our bellies. And what did
you come for? What did you ask for when you came here? We don't
ask you for anything but to give us a fight or a clear road to go
back whence we came....' 'I would fight with you now,' says he,
pulling at his little moustache. 'And I would let you shoot me, and
welcome,' I said. 'This is as good a jumping-off place for me as
another. I am sick of my infernal luck. But it would be too easy.
There are my men in the same boat -- and, by God, I am not the
sort to jump out of trouble and leave them in a d -- d lurch,' I said.
He stood thinking for a while and then wanted to know what I had
done ('out there' he says, tossing his head down-stream) to be hazed
about so. 'Have we met to tell each other the story of our lives?' I
asked him. 'Suppose you begin. No? Well, I am sure I don't want
to hear. Keep it to yourself. I know it is no better than mine. I've
lived -- and so did you, though you talk as if you were one of those
people that should have wings so as to go about without touching
the dirty earth. Well -- it is dirty. I haven't got any wings. I am here
because I was afraid once in my life. Want to know what of? Of a
prison. That scares me, and you may know it -- if it's any good to
you. I won't ask you what scared you into this infernal hole, where
you seem to have found pretty pickings. That's your luck and this
is mine -- the privilege to beg for the favour of being shot quickly,
or else kicked out to go free and starve in my own way.' . . ."
  'His debilitated body shook with an exultation so vehement, so
assured, and so malicious that it seemed to have driven off the death
waiting for him in that hut. The corpse of his mad self-love uprose
from rags and destitution as from the dark horrors of a tomb. It is
impossible to say how much he lied to Jim then, how much he lied
to me now -- and to himself always. Vanity plays lurid tricks with
our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence
to make it live. Standing at the gate of the other world in the guise
of a beggar, he had slapped this world's face, he had spat on it, he
had thrown upon it an immensity of scorn and revolt at the bottom
of his misdeeds. He had overcome them all -- men, women, savages,
traders, ruffians, missionaries -- and Jim -- "that beefy-faced
beggar." I did not begrudge him this triumph in articulo mortis, this
almost posthumous illusion of having trampled all the earth under
his feet. While he was boasting to me, in his sordid and repulsive
agony, I couldn't help thinking of the chuckling talk relating to
the time of his greatest splendour when, during a year or more,
Gentleman Brown's ship was to be seen, for many days on end,
hovering off an islet befringed with green upon azure, with the dark
dot of the mission-house on a white beach; while Gentleman Brown,
ashore, was casting his spells over a romantic girl for whom Melane-
sia had been too much, and giving hopes of a remarkable conversion
to her husband. The poor man, some time or other, had been heard
to express the intention of winning "Captain Brown to a better way
of life." . . . "Bag Gentleman Brown for Glory" - as a leery-eyed
loafer expressed it once -- "just to let them see up above what a
Western Pacific trading skipper looks like." And this was the man,
too, who had run off with a dying woman, and had shed tears over
her body. "Carried on like a big baby," his then mate was never
tired of telling, "and where the fun came in may I be kicked to
death by diseased Kanakas if I know. Why, gents! she was too far
gone when he brought her aboard to know him; she just lay there
on her back in his bunk staring at the beam with awful shining
eyes -- and then she died. Dam' bad sort of fever, I guess...." I
remembered all these stories while, wiping his matted lump of a
beard with a livid hand, he was telling me from his noisome couch
how he got round, got in, got home, on that confounded, immacu-
late, don't-you-touch-me sort of fellow. He admitted that he
couldn't be scared, but there was a way, "as broad as a turnpike,
to get in and shake his twopenny soul around and inside out and
upside down -- by God!" '

                            CHAPTER 42

  'I don't dlink he could do more than perhaps look upon that
straight path. He seemed to have been puzzled by what he saw, for
he interrupted himself in his narrative more than once to exclaim,
"He nearly slipped from me there. I could not make him out. Who
was he?" And after glaring at me wildly he would go on, jubilating
and sneering. To me the conversation of these two across the creek
appears now as the deadliest kind of duel on which Fate looked on
with her cold-eyed knowledge of the end. No, he didn't turn Jim's
soul inside out, but I am much mistaken if the spirit so utterly out
of his reach had not been made to taste to the full the bitterness of
that contest. These were the emissaries with whom the world he
had renounced was pursuing him in his retreat -- white men from
"out there" where he did not think himself good enough to live.
This was all that came to him -- a menace, a shock, a danger to his
work. I suppose it is this sad, half-resentful, half-resigned feeling,
piercing through the few words Jim said now and then, that puzzled
Brown so much in the reading of his character. Some great men
owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they
destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for
their work; and Brown, as though he had been really great, had a
satanic gift of finding out the best and the weakest spot in his
victims. He admitted to me that Jim wasn't of the sort that can be
got over by truckling, and accordingly he took care to show himself
as a man confronting without dismay ill-luck, censure, and disaster.
The smuggling of a few guns was no great crime, he pointed out.
As to coming to Patusan, who had the right to say he hadn't come
to beg? The infernal people here let loose at him from both banks
without staying to ask questions. He made the point brazenly, for,
in truth, Dain Waris's energetic action had prevented the greatest
calamities; because Brown told me distinctly that, perceiving the
size of the place, he had resolved instandy in his mind that as soon
as he had gained a footing he would set fire right and left, and begin
by shooting down everything living in sight, in order to cow and
terrify the population. The disproportion of forces was so great that
this was the only way giving him the slightest chance of attaining
his ends -- he agued in a fit of coughing. But he didn't tell Jim this.
As to the hardships and starvation they had gone through, these
had been very real; it was enough to look at his band. He made, at
the sound of a shrill whistle, all his men appear standing in a row
on the logs in full view, so that Jim could see them. For the killing
of the man, it had been done -- well, it had -- but was not this war,
bloody war -- in a corner? and the fellow had been killed cleanly,
shot through the chest, not like that poor devil of his lying now in
the creek. They had to listen to him dying for six hours, with his
entrails torn with slugs. At any rate this was a life for a life....
And all this was said with the weariness, with the recklessness of a
man spurred on and on by ill-luck till he cares not where he runs.
When he asked Jim, with a sort of brusque despairing frankness,
whether he himself -- straight now -- didn't understand that when
"it came to saving one's life in the dark, one didn't care who else
went -- three, thirty, three hundred people" -- it was as if a demon
had been whispering advice in his ear. "I made him wince," boasted
Brown to me. "He very soon left off coming the righteous over me.
He just stood there with nothing to say, and looking as black as
thunder -- not at me -- on the ground." He asked Jim whether he
had nothing fishy in his life to remember that he was so damnedly
hard upon a man trying to get out of a deadly hole by the first means
that came to hand -- and so on, and so on. And there ran through
the rough talk a vein of subtle reference to their common blood,
an assumption of common experience; a sickening suggestion of
common guilt, of secret knowledge that was like a bond of their
minds and of their hearts.
  'At last Brown threw himself down full length and watched Jim
out of the corners of his eyes. Jim on his side of the creek stood
thinking and switching his leg. The houses in view were silent, as
if a pestilence had swept them clean of every breath of life; but
many invisible eyes were turned, from within, upon the two men
with the creek between them, a stranded white boat, and the body
of the third man half sunk in the mud. On the river canoes were
moving again, for Patusan was recovering its belief in the stability
of earthly institutions since the return of the white lord. The right
bank, the platforms of the houses, the rafts moored along the
shores, even the roofs of bathing-huts, were covered with people
that, far away out of earshot and almost out of sight, were straining
their eyes towards the knoll beyond the Rajah's stockade. Within
the wide irregular ring of forests, broken in two places by the sheen
of the river, there was a silence. "Will you promise to leave the
coast?" Jim asked. Brown lifted and let fall his hand, giving every-
thing up as it were -- accepting the inevitable. "And surrender your
arms?" Jim went on. Brown sat up and glared across. "Surrender
our arms! Not till you come to take them out of our stiff hands.
You think I am gone crazy with funk? Oh no! That and the rags I
stand in is all I have got in the world, besides a few more breech-
loaders on board; and I expect to sell the lot in Madagascar, if I
ever get so far -- begging my way from ship to ship."
  'Jim said nothing to this. At last, throwing away the switch he
held in his hand, he said, as if speaking to himself, "I don't know
whether I have the power." . . . "You don't know! And you wanted
me just now to give up my arms! That's good, too," cried Brown;
"Suppose they say one thing to you, and do the other thing to me.'
He calmed down markedly. "I dare say you have the power, or
what's the meaning of all this talk?" he continued. "What did you
come down here for? To pass the time of day?"
  ' "Very well," said Jim, lifting his head suddenly after a long
silence. "You shall have a clear road or else a clear fight.' He turned
on his heel and walked away.
  'Brown got up at once, but he did not go up the hill till he had
seen Jim disappear between the first houses. He never set his eyes
on him again. On his way back he met Cornelius slouching down
with his head between his shoulders. He stopped before Brown.
"Why didn't you kill him?" he demanded in a sour, discontented
voice. "Because I could do better than that," Brown said with an
amused smile. "Never! never!" protested Cornelius with energy.
"Couldn't. I have lived here for many years." Brown looked up at
him curiously. There were many sides to the life of that place in
arms against him; things he would never find out. Cornelius slunk
past dejectedly in the direction of the river. He was now leaving his
new friends; he accepted the disappointing course of events with a
sulky obstinacy which seemed to draw more together his little yel-
low old face; and as he went down he glanced askant here and there,
never giving up his fixed idea.
  'Henceforth events move fast without a check, flowing from the
very hearts of men like a stream from a dark source, and we see Jim
amongst them, mostly through Tamb' Itam's eyes. The girl's eyes
had watched him too, but her life is too much entwined with his:
there is her passion, her wonder, her anger, and, above all, her fear
and her unforgiving love. Of the faithful servant, uncomprehending
as the rest of them, it is the fidelity alone that comes into play; a
fidelity and a belief in his lord so strong that even amazement is
subdued to a sort of saddened acceptance of a mysterious failure.
He has eyes only for one figure, and through all the mazes of bewil-
derment he preserves his air of guardianship, of obedience, of care.
  'His master came back from his talk with the white men, walking
slowly towards the stockade in the street. Everybody was rejoiced
to see him return, for while he was away every man had been afraid
not only of him being killed, but also of what would come after.
Jim went into one of the houses, where old Doramin had retired,
and remained alone for a long time with the head of the Bugis
settlers. No doubt he discussed the course to follow with him then,
but no man was present at the conversation. Only Tamb' Itam,
keeping as close to the door as he could, heard his master say, "Yes.
I shall let all the people know that such is my wish; but I spoke to
you, O Doramin, before all the others, and alone; for you know my
heart as well as I know yours and its greatest desire. And you know
well also that I have no thought but for the people's good." Then
his master, lifting the sheeting in the doorway, went out, and he,
Tamb' Itam, had a glimpse of old Doramin within, sitting in the
chair with his hands on his knees, and looking between his feet.
Afterwards he followed his master to the fort, where all the principal
Bugis and Patusan inhabitants had been summoned for a talk.
Tamb' Itam himself hoped there would be some fighting. "What
was it but the taking of another hill?" he exclaimed regretfully.
However, in the town many hoped that the rapacious strangers
would be induced, by the sight of so many brave men making ready
to fight, to go away. It would be a good thing if they went away.
Since Jim's arrival had been made known before daylight by the
gun fired from the fort and the beating of the big drum there, the
fear that had hung over Patusan had broken and subsided like a
wave on a rock, leaving the seething foam of excitement, curiosity,
and endless speculation. Half of the population had been ousted
out of their homes for purposes of defence, and were living in the
street on the left side of the river, crowding round the fort, and in
momentary expectation of seeing their abandoned dwellings on the
threatened bank burst into flames. The general anxiety was to see
the matter settled quickly. Food, through Jewel's care, had been
served out to the refugees. Nobody knew what their white man
would do. Some remarked that it was worse than in Sherif Ali's
war. Then many people did not care; now everybody had something
to lose. The movements of canoes passing to and fro between the
two parts of the town were watched with interest. A couple of Bugis
war-boats lay anchored in the middle of the stream to protect the
river, and a thread of smoke stood at the bow of each; the men in
them were cooking their midday rice when Jim, after his interviews
with Brown and Doramin, crossed the river and entered by the
water-gate of his fort. The people inside crowded round him, so that
he could hardly make his way to the house. They had not seen
him before, because on his arrival during the night he had only
exchanged a few words with the girl, who had come down to the
landing-stage for the purpose, and had then gone on at once to join
the chiefs und the fighting men on the other bank. People shouted
greetings after him. One old woman raised a laugh by pushing her
way to the front madly and enjoining him in a scolding voice to see
to it that her two sons, who were with Doramin, did not come to
harm at the hands of the robbers. Several of the bystanders tried to
pull her away, but she struggled and cried, "Let me go. What is
this, O Muslims? This laughter is unseemly. Are they not cruel,
bloodthirsty robbers bent on ki]ling?" "Let her be," said Jim, and
as a silence fell suddenly, he said slowly, "Everybody shall be safe."
He entered the house before the great sigh, and the loud murmurs
of satisfaction, had died out.
  'There's no doubt his mind was made up that Brown should have
his way clear back to the sea. His fate, revolted, was forcing his
hand. He had for the first time to affirm his will in the face of
outspoken opposition. "There was much talk, and at first my master
was silent," Tamb' Itam said. "Darkness came, and then I lit the
candles on the long table. The chiefs sat on each side, and the lady
remained by my master's right hand."
  'When he began to speak, the unaccustomed difficulty seemed
only to fix his resolve more immovably. The white men were now
waiting for his answer on the hill. Their chief had spoken to him in
the language of his own people, making clear many things difficult
to explain in any other speech. They were erring men whom suffer-
ing had made blind to right and wrong. It is true that lives had been
lost already, but why lose more? He declared to his hearers, the
assembled heads of the people, that their welfare was his welfare,
their losses his losses, their mourning his mourning. He looked
round at the grave listening faces and told them to remember that
they had fought and worked side by side. They knew his cour-
age . . . Here a murmur interrupted him . . . And that he had
never deceived them. For many years they had dwelt together. He
loved the land and the people living in it with a very great love. He
was ready to answer with his life for any harm that should come to
them if the white men with beards were allowed to retire. They
were evil-doers, but their destiny had been evil too. Had he ever
advised them ill? Had his words ever brought suffering to the
people? he asked. He believed that it would be best to let these
whites and their followers go with their lives. It would be a small
gift. "I whom you have tried and found always true ask you to
let them go." He turned to Doramin. The old nakhoda made no
movement. "Then," said Jim, "call in Dain Waris, your son, my
friend, for in this business I shall not lead." '

                          CHAPTER 43

  'Tamb' Itam behind his chair was thunderstruck. The declar-
ation produced an immense sensation. "Let them go because this is
best in my knowledge, which has never deceived you," Jim insisted.
There was a silence. In the darkness of the courtyard could be heard
the subdued whispering, shuffling noise of many people. Doramin
raised his heavy head and said that there was no more reading of
hearts than touching the sky with the hand, but -- he consented.
The others gave their opinion in turn. "It is best," "Let them go,"
and so on. But most of them simply said that they "believed Tuan
Jim."
  'In this simple form of assent to his will lies the whole gist of the
situation; their creed, his truth; and the testimony to that faithful-
ness which made him in his own eyes the equal of the impeccable
men who never fall out of the ranks. Stein's words, "Romantic! --
Romantic!" seem to ring over those distances that will never give
him up now to a world indifferent to his failings and his virtues,
and to that ardent and clinging affection that refuses him the dole
of tears in the bewilderment of a great grief and of eternal separ-
ation. From the moment the sheer truthfulness of his last three
years of life carries the day against the ignorance, the fear, and the
anger of men, he appears no longer to me as I saw him last -- a white
speck catching all the dim light left upon a sombre coast and the
darkened seaf -- but greater and more pitiful in the loneliness of his
soul, that remains even for her who loved him best a cruel and
insoluble mystery.
  'It is evident that he did not mistrust Brown; there was no reason
to doubt the story, whose truth seemed warranted by the rough
frankness, by a sort of virile sincerity in accepting the morality and
the consequences of his acts. But Jim did not know the almost
inconceivable egotism of the man which made him, when resisted
and foiled in his will, mad with the indignant and revengeful rage
of a thwarted autocrat. But if Jim did not mistrust Brown, he was
evidently anxious that some misunderstanding should not occur,
ending perhaps in collision and bloodshed. It was for this reason
that directly the Malay chiefs had gone he asked Jewel to get him
something to eat, as he was going out of the fort to take command
in the town. On her remonstrating against this on the score of his
fatigue, he said that something might happen for which he would
never forgive himself. "I am responsible for every life in the land,"
he said. He was moody at first; she served him with her own hands,
taking the plates and dishes (of the dinner-service presented him
by Stein) from Tamb' Itam. He brightened up after a while; told
her she would be again in command of the fort for another night.
"There's no sleep for us, old girl," he said, "while our people are
in danger." Later on he said jokingly that she was the best man of
them all. "If you and Dain Waris had done what you wanted, not
one of these poor devils would be alive to-day." "Are they very
bad?" she asked, leaning over his chair. "Men act badly sometimes
without being much worse than others," he said after some hesita-
tion.
  'Tamb' Itam followed his master to the landing-stage outside the
fort. The night was clear but without a moon, and the middle of
the river was dark, while the water under each bank reflected the
light of many fires "as on a night of Ramadan," Tamb' Itam said.
War-boats drifted silently in the dark lane or, anchored, floated
motionless with a loud ripple. That night there was much paddling
in a canoe and walking at his master's heels for Tamb' Itam: up and
down the street they tramped, where the fires were burning, inland
on the outskirts of the town where small parties of men kept guard
in the fields. Tuan Jim gave his orders and was obeyed. Last of all
they went to the Rajah's stockade, which a detachment of Jim's
people manned on that night. The old Rajah had fled early in the
morning with most of his women to a small house he had near a
jungle village on a tributary stream. Kassim, left behind, had
attended the council with his air of diligent activity to explain away
the diplomacy of the day before. He was considerably cold-shoul-
dered, but managed to preserve his smiling, quiet alertness, and
professed himself highly delighted when Jim told him sternly that
he proposed to occupy the stockade on that night with his own men.
After the council broke up he was heard outside accosting this and
that deputing chief, and speaking in a loud, gratified tone of the
Rajah's property being protected in the Rajah's absence.
  'About ten or so Jim's men marched in. The stockade com-
manded the mouth of the creek, and Jim meant to remain there till
Brown had passed below. A small fire was lit on the flat, grassy
point outside the wall of stakes, and Tamb' Itam placed a little
folding-stool for his master. Jim told him to try and sleep. Tamb'
Itam got a mat and lay down a little way off; but he could not sleep,
though he knew he had to go on an important journey before the
night was out. His master walked to and fro before the fire with
bowed head and with his hands behind his back. His face was sad.
Whenever his master approached him Tamb' Itam pretended to
sleep, not wishing his master to know he had been watched. At last
his master stood still, looking down on him as he lay, and said
softly, "It is time."
  'Tamb' Itam arose directly and made his preparations. His mis-
sion was to go down the river, preceding Brown's boat by an hour
or more, to tell Dain Waris finally and formally that the whites were
to be allowed to pass out unmolested. Jim would not trust anybody
else with that service. Before starting, Tamb' Itam, more as a matter
of form (since his position about Jim made him perfectly known),
asked for a token. "Because, Tuan," he said, "the message is
important, and these are thy very words I carry." His master first
put his hand into one pocket, then into another, and finally took
off his forefinger Stein's silver ring, which he habitually wore, and
gave it to Tamb' Itam. When Tamb' Itam left on his mission,
Brown's camp on the knoll was dark but for a single small glow
shining through the branches of one of the trees the white men had
cut down.
  'Early in the evening Brown had received from Jim a folded piece
of paper on which was written, "You get the clear road. Start as
soon as your boat floats on the morning tide. Let your men be
careful. The bushes on both sides of the creek and the stockade at
the mouth are full of well-armed men. You would have no chance,
but I don't believe you want bloodshed." Brown read it, tore the
paper into small pieces, and, turning to Cornelius, who had brought
it, said jeeringly, "Good-bye, my excellent friend." Cornelius had
been in the fort, and had been sneaking around Jim's house during
the afternoon. Jim chose him to carry the note because he could
speak English, was known to Brown, and was not likely to be shot
by some nervous mistake of one of the men as a Malay, approaching
in the dusk, perhaps might have been.
  'Cornelius didn't go away after delivering the paper. Brown was
sitting up over a tiny fire; all the others were lying down. "I could
tell you something you would like to know," Cornelius mumbled
crossly. Brown paid no attention. "You did not kill him," went on
the other, "and what do you get for it? You might have had money
from the Rajah, besides the loot of all the Bugis houses, and now
you get nothing." "You had better clear out from here," growled
Brown, without even looking at him. But Cornelius let himself drop
by his side and began to whisper very fast, touching his elbow from
time to time. What he had to say made Brown sit up at first, with
a curse. He had simply informed him of Dain Waris's armed party
down the river. At first Brown saw himself completely sold and
betrayed, but a moment's reflection convinced him that there could
be no treachery intended. He said nothing, and after a while Corne-
lius remarked, in a tone of complete indifference, that there was
another way out of the river which he knew very well. "A good
thing to know, too," said Brown, pricking up his ears; and Corne-
lius began to talk of what went on in town and repeated all that had
been said in council, gossiping in an even undertone at Brown's ear
as you talk amongst sleeping men you do not wish to wake. "He
thinks he has made me harmless, does he?" mumbled Brown very
low.... "Yes. He is a fool. A little child. He came here and robbed
me," droned on Cornelius, "and he made all the people believe
him. But if something happened that they did not believe him any
more, where would he be? And the Bugis Dain who is waiting for
you down the river there, captain, is the very man who chased you
up here when you first came." Brown observed nonchalantly that
it would be just as well to avoid him, and with the same detached,
musing air Cornelius declared himself acquainted with a backwater
broad enough to take Brown's boat past Waris's camp. "You will
have to be quiet," he said as an afterthought, "for in one place we
pass close behind his camp. Very close. They are camped ashore
with their boats hauled up." "Oh, we know how to be as quiet as
mice; never fear," said Brown. Cornelius stipulated that in case he
were to pilot Brown out, his canoe should be towed. "I'll have to
get back quick," he explained.
  'It was two hours before the dawn when word was passed to the
stockade from outlying watchers that the white robbers were com-
ing down to their boat. In a very short time every armed man from
one end of Patusan to the other was on the alert, yet the banks of
the river remained so silent that but for the fires burning with
sudden blurred flares the town might have been asleep as if in peace-
time. A heavy mist lay very low on the water, making a sort of
illusive grey light that showed nothing. When Brown's long-boat
glided out of the creek into the river, Jim was standing on the low
point of land before the Rajah's stockade -- on the very spot where
for the first time he put his foot on Patusan shore. A shadow loomed
up, moving in the greyness, solitary, very bulky, and yet constantly
eluding the eye. A murmur of low talking came out of it. Brown at
the tiller heard Jim speak calmly: "A clear road. You had better
trust to the current while the fog lasts; but this will lift presently."
"Yes, presently we shall see clear," replied Brown.
  'The thirty or forty men standing with muskets at ready outside
the stockade held their breath. The Bugis owner of the prau, whom
I saw on Stein's verandah, and who was amongst them, told me
that the boat, shaving the low point close, seemed for a moment to
grow big and hang over it like a mountain. "If you think it worth
your while to wait a day outside," called out Jim, "I'll try to send
you down something -- a bullock, some yams -- what I can." The
shadow went on moving. "Yes. Do," said a voice, blank and muf-
fled out of the fog. Not one of the many attentive listeners under-
stood what the words meant; and then Brown and his men in their
boat floated away, fading spectrally without the slightest sound.
  'Thus Brown, invisible in the mist, goes out of Patusan elbow to
elbow with Cornelius in the stern-sheets of the long-boat. "Perhaps
you shall get a small bullock," said Cornelius. "Oh yes. Bullock.
Yam. You'll get it if he said so. He always speaks the truth. He stole
everything I had. I suppose you like a small bullock better than the
loot of many houses." "I would advise you to hold your tongue, or
somebody here may fling you overboard into this damned fog," said
Brown. The boat seemed to be standing still; nothing could be seen,
not even the river alongside, only the water-dust flew and trickled,
condensed, down their beards and faces. It was weird, Brown told
me. Every individual man of them felt as though he were adrift
alone in a boat, haunted by an almost imperceptible suspicion of
sighing, muttering ghosts. "Throw me out, would you? But I would
know where I was," mumbled Cornelius surlily. "I've lived many
years here." "Not long enough to see through a fog like this,"
Brown said, lolling back with his arm swinging to and fro on the
useless tiller. "Yes. Long enough for that," snarled Cornelius.
"That's very useful," commented Brown. "Am I to believe you
could find that backway you spoke of blindfold, like this?" Corne-
lius grunted. "Are you too tired to row?" he asked after a silence.
"No, by God!" shouted Brown suddenly. "Out with your oars
there." There was a great knocking in the fog, which after a while
settled into a regular grind of invisible sweeps against invisible
thole-pins. Otherwise nothing was changed, and but for the slight
splash of a dipped blade it was like rowing a balloon car in a cloud,
said Brown. Thereafter Cornelius did not open his lips except to
ask querulously for somebody to bale out his canoe, which was
towing behind the long-boat. Gradually the fog whitened and
became luminous ahead. To the left Brown saw a darkness as
though he had been looking at the back of the deputing night. All
at once a big bough covered with leaves appeared above his head,
and ends of twigs, dripping and still, curved slenderly close along-
side. Cornelius, without a word, took the tiller from his hand.'

                          CHAPTER 44

  'I don't think they spoke together again. The boat entered a
narrow by-channel, where it was pushed by the oar-blades set into
crumbling banks, and there was a gloom as if enormous black wings
had been outspread above the mist that filled its depth to the sum-
mits of the trees. The branches overhead showered big drops
through the gloomy fog. At a mutter from Cornelius, Brown
ordered his men to load. "I'll give you a chance to get even with
them before we're done, you dismal cripples, you," he said to his
gang. "Mind you don't throw it away -- you hounds." Low growls
answered that speech. Cornelius showed much fussy concern for
the safety of his canoe.
  'Meantime Tamb' Itam had reached the end of his journey. The
fog had delayed him a little, but he had paddled steadily, keeping
in touch with the south bank. By-and-by daylight came like a glow
in a ground glass globe. The shores made on each side of the river
a dark smudge, in which one could detect hints of columnar forms
and shadows of twisted branches high up. The mist was still thick
on the water, but a good watch was being kept, for as Iamb' Itam
approached the camp the figures of two men emerged out of the
white vapour, and voices spoke to him boisterously. He answered,
and presently a canoe lay alongside, and he exchanged news with
the paddlers. All was well. The trouble was over. Then the men in
the canoe let go their grip on the side of his dug-out and incontin-
ently fell out of sight. He pursued his way till he heard voices
coming to him quietly over the water, and saw, under the now
lifting, swirling mist, the glow of many little fires burning on a
sandy stretch, backed by lofty thin timber and bushes. There again
a look-out was kept, for he was challenged. He shouted his name
as the two last sweeps of his paddle ran his canoe up on the strand.
It was a big camp. Men crouched in many little knots under a
subdued murmur of early morning talk. Many thin threads of
smoke curled slowly on the white mist. Little shelters, elevated
above the ground, had been built for the chiefs. Muskets were
stacked in small pyramids, and long spears were stuck singly into
the sand near the fires.
  'Tamb' Itam, assuming an air of importance, demanded to be led
to Dain Waris. He found the friend of his white lord lying on a
raised couch made of bamboo, and sheltered by a sort of shed of
sticks covered with mats. Dain Waris was awake, and a bright
fire was burning before his sleeping-place, which resembled a rude
shrine. The only son of nakhoda Doramin answered his greeting
kindly. Tamb' Itam began by handing him the ring which vouched
for the truth of the messenger's words. Dain Waris, reclining on
his elbow, bade him speak and tell all the news. Beginning with the
consecrated formula, "The news is good," Tamb' Itam delivered
Jim's own words. The white men, deputing with the consent of all
the chiefs, were to be allowed to pass down the river. In unswer to
a question or two Tamb' Itam then reported the proceedings of the
last council. Dain Waris listened attentively to the end, toying with
the ring which ultimately he slipped on the forefinger of his right
hand. After hearing all he had to say he dismissed Tamb' Itam to
have food and rest. Orders for the return in the afternoon were
given immediately. Afterwards Dain Waris lay down again, open-
eyed, while his personal attendants were preparing his food at the
fire, by which Tamb' Itam also sat talking to the men who lounged
up to hear the latest intelligence from the town. The sun was eating
up the mist. A good watch was kept upon the reach of the main
stream where the boat of the whites was expected to appear every
moment.
  'It was then that Brown took his revenge upon the world
which, after twenty years of contemptuous and reckless bullying,
refused him the tribute of a common robber's success. It was an
act of cold-blooded ferocity, and it consoled him on his death-
bed like a memory of an indomitable defiance. Stealthily he
landed his men on the other side of the island opposite to the
Bugis camp, and led them across. After a short but quite silent
scuffle, Cornelius, who had tried to slink away at the moment of
landing, resigned himself to show the way where the undergrowth
was most sparse. Brown held both his skinny hands together
behind his back in the grip of one vast fist, and now and then
impelled him forward with a fierce push. Cornelius remained
as mute as a fish, abject but faithful to his purpose, whose
accomplishment loomed before him dimly. At the edge of the
patch of forest Brown's men spread themselves out in cover and
waited. The camp was plain from end to end before their eyes,
and no one looked their way. Nobody even dreamed that the
white men could have any knowledge of the narrow channel at
the back of the island. When he judged the moment come, Brown
yelled, "Let them have it," and fourteen shots rang out like one.
  'Tamb' Itam told me the surprise was so great that, except for
those who fell dead or wounded, not a soul of them moved for quite
an appreciable time after the first discharge. Then a man screamed,
and after that scream a great yell of amazement and fear went up
from all the throats. A blind panic drove these men in a surging
swaying mob to and fro along the shore like a herd of cattle afraid
of the water. Some few jumped into the river then, but most of
them did so only after the last discharge. Three times Brown's men
fired into the ruck, Brown, the only one in view, cursing and yelling,
"Aim low! aim low!"
  'Tamb' Itam says that, as for him, he understood at the first
volley what had happened. Though untouched he fell down and lay
as if dead, but with his eyes open. At the sound of the first shots
Dain Waris, reclining on the couch, jumped up and ran out upon
the open shore, just in time to receive a bullet in his forehead at the
second discharge. Tamb' Itam saw him fling his arms wide open
before he fell. Then, he says, a great fear came upon him -- not
before. The white men retired as they had come -- unseen.
  'Thus Brown balanced his account with the evil fortune. Notice
that even in this awful outbreak there is a superiority as of a man
who carries right -- the abstract thing -- within the envelope of his
common desires. It was not a vulgar and treacherous massacre; it
was a lesson, a retribution -- a demonstration of some obscure and
awful attribute of our nature which, I am afraid, is not so very far
under the surface as we like to think.
  'Afterwards the whites depart unseen by Tamb' Itam, and seem
to vanish from before men's eyes altogether; and the schooner, too,
vanishes after the manner of stolen goods. But a story is told of a
white long-boat picked up a month later in the Indian Ocean by a
cargo steamer. Two parched, yellow, glassy-eyed, whispering skel-
etons in her recognised the authority of a third, who declared that
his name was Brown. His schooner, he reported, bound south with
a cargo of Java sugar, had sprung a bad leak and sank under his
feet. He and his companions were the survivors of a crew of six.
The two died on board the steamer which rescued them. Brown
lived to be seen by me, and I can testify that he had played his part
to the last.
  'It seems, however, that in going away they had neglected to cast
off Cornelius's canoe. Cornelius himself Brown had let go at the
beginning of the shooting, with a kick for a parting benediction.
Tamb' Itam, after arising from amongst the dead, saw the Nazarene
running up and down the shore amongst the corpses and the expir-
ing fires. He uttered little cries. Suddenly he rushed to the water,
and made frantic efforts to get one of the Bugis boats into the water.
"Afterwards, till he had seen me," related Tamb' Itam, "he stood
looking at the heavy canoe and scratching his head." "What became
of him?" I asked. Tamb' Itam, staring hard at me, made an express-
ive gesture with his right arm. "Twice I struck, Tuan," he said.
"When he beheld me approaching he cast himself violently on the
ground and made a great outcry, kicking. He screeched like a fright-
ened hen till he felt the point; then he was still, und lay staring at
me while his life went out of his eyes."
  'This done, Tamb' Itam did not tarry. He understood the import-
ance of being the first with the awful news at the fort. There were,
of course, many survivors of Dain Waris's party; but in the
extremity of panic some had swum across the river, others had
bolted into the bush. The fact is that they did not know really who
struck that blow -- whether more white robbers were not coming,
whether they had not already got hold of the whole land. They
imagined themselves to be the victims of a vast treachery, and
utterly doomed to destruction. It is said that some small parties did
not come in till three days afterwards. However, a few tried to make
their way back to Patusan at once, and one of the canoes that were
patrolling the river that morning was in sight of the camp at the
very moment of the attack. It is true that at first the men in her
leaped overboard and swam to the opposite bank, but afterwards
they returned to their boat and started fearfully up-stream. Of these
Tamb' Itam had an hour's advance.'

                          CHAPTER 45

  'When Tamb' Itam, paddling madly, came into the town-reach,
the women, thronging the platforms before the houses, were look-
ing out for the return of Dain Waris's little fleet of boats. The town
had a festive air; here and there men, still with spears or guns in
their hands, could be seen moving or standing on the shore in
groups. Chinamen's shops had been opened early; but the market-
place was empty, and a sentry, still posted at the corner of the fort,
made out Tamb' Itam, and shouted to those within. The gate was
wide open. Tamb' Itam jumped ashore and ran in headlong. The
first person he met was the girl coming down from the house.
  'Tamb' Itam, disordered, panting, with trembling lips and wild
eyes, stood for a time before her as if a sudden spell had been laid
on him. Then he broke out very quickly: "They have killed Dain
Waris and many more." She clapped her hands, and her first words
were, "Shut the gates." Most of the fortmen had gone back to their
houses, but Tamb' Itam hurried on the few who remained for their
turn of duty within. The girl stood in the middle of the courtyard
while the others ran about. "Doramin," she cried despairingly as
Tamb' Itam passed her. Next time he went by he answered her
thought rapidly, "Yes. But we have all the powder in Patusan."
She caught him by the arm, and, pointing at the house, "Call him
out," she whispered, trembling.
  'Tamb' Itam ran up the steps. His master was sleeping. "It is I,
Tamb' Itam," he cried at the door, "with tidings that cannot wait."
He saw Jim turn over on the pillow and open his eyes, and he burst
out at once. "This, Tuan, is a day of evil, an accursed day." His
master raised himself on his elbow to listen -- just as Dain Waris
had done. And then Tamb' Itam began his tale, trying to relate the
story in order, calling Dain Waris Panglima, and saying: "The
Panglima then called out to the chief of his own boatmen, 'Give
Tamb' Itam something to eat' " -- when his master put his feet to
the ground and looked at him with such a discomposed face that
the words remained in his throat.
  ' "Speak out," said Jim. "Is he dead?" "May you live long,"
cried Tamb' Itam. "It was a most cruel treachery. He ran out at the
first shots and fell." . . . His master walked to the window and with
his fist struck at the shutter. The room was made light; and then in
a steady voice, but speaking fast, he began to give him orders to
assemble a fleet of boats for immediate pursuit, go to this man, to
the other -- send messengers; and as he talked he sat down on the
bed, stooping to lace his boots hurriedly, and suddenly looked up.
"Why do you stand here?" he asked very red-faced. "Waste no
time." Tamb' Itam did not move. "Forgive me, Tuan, but . . .
but," he began to stummer. "What?" cried his master aloud, look-
ing terrible, leaning forward with his hands gripping the edge of
the bed. "It is not safe for thy servant to go out amongst the people,"
said Tamb' Itam, after hesitating a moment.
  'Then Jim understood. He had retreated from one world, for a
small matter of an impulsive jump, and now the other, the work of
his own hands, had fallen in ruins upon his head. It was not safe
for his servant to go out amongst his own people! I believe that in
that very moment he had decided to defy the disaster in the only
way it occurred to him such a disaster could be defied; but all I
know is that, without a word, he came out of his room and sat
before the long table, at the head of which he was accustomed to
regulate the affairs of his world, proclaiming daily the truth that
surely lived in his heart. The dark powers should not rob him twice
of his peace. He sat like a stone figure. Tamb' Itam, deferential,
hinted at preparations for defence. The girl he loved came in and
spoke to him, but he made a sign with his hand, and she was awed
by the dumb appeal for silence in it. She went out on the verandah
and sat on the threshold, as if to guard him with her body from
dangers outside.
  'What thoughts passed through his head -- what memories?
Who can tell? Everything was gone, and he who had been once
unfaithful to his trust had lost again all men's confidence. It was
then, I believe, he tried to write -- to somebody -- and gave it
up. Loneliness was closing on him. People had trusted him with
their lives -- only for that; and yet they could never, as he had
said, never be made to understand him. Those without did not
hear him make a sound. Later, towards the evening, he came to
the door and called for Tamb' Itam. "Well?" he asked. "There
is much weeping. Much anger too," said Tamb' Itam. Jim looked
up at him. "You know," he murmured. "Yes, Tuan," said
Tamb' Itam. "Thy servant does know, and the gates are closed.
We shall have to fight." "Fight! What for?" he asked. "For our
lives." "I have no life," he said. Tamb' Itam heard a cry from
the girl at the door. "Who knows?" said Tamb' Itam. "By
audacity and cunning we may even escape. There is much fear
in men's hearts too." He went out, thinking vaguely of boats
and of open sea, leaving Jim and the girl together.
  'I haven't the heart to set down here such glimpses as she had
given me of the hour or more she passed in there wrestling with
him for the possession of her happiness. Whether he had any hope --
what he expected, what he imagined -- it is impossible to say. He
was inflexible, and with the growing loneliness of his obstinacy his
spirit seemed to rise above the ruins of his existence. She cried
"Fight!" into his ear. She could not understand. There was nothing
to fight for. He was going to prove his power in another way and
conquer the fatal destiny itself. He came out into the courtyard,
and behind him, with streaming hair, wild of face, breathless, she
staggered out and leaned on the side of the doorway. "Open the
gates," he ordered. Afterwards, turning to those of his men who
were inside, he gave them leave to depart to their homes. "For how
long, Tuan?" asked one of them timidly. "For all life," he said, in
a sombre tone.
  'A hush had fallen upon the town after the outburst of wailing
and lamentation that had swept over the river, like a gust of wind
from the opened abode of sorrow. But rumours flew in whispers,
filling the hearts with consternation and horrible doubts. The rob-
bers were coming back, bringing many others with them, in a great
ship, and there would be no refuge in the land for any one. A sense
of utter insecurity as during an earthquake pervaded the minds of
men, who whispered their suspicions, looking at each other as if in
the presence of some awful portent.
  'The sun was sinking towards the forests when Dain Waris's
body was brought into Doramin's campong. Four men carried it
in, covered decently with a white sheet which the old mother had
sent out down to the gate to meet her son on his return. They laid
him at Doramin's feet, and the old man sat still for a long time, one
hand on each knee, looking down. The fronds of palms swayed
gently, and the foliage of fruit trees stirred above his head. Every
single man of his people was there, fully armed, when the old nak-
hoda at last raised his eyes. He moved them slowly over the crowd,
as if seeking for a missing face. Again his chin sank on his breast.
The whispers of many men mingled with the slight rustling of the
leaves.
  'The Malay who had brought Tamb' Itam and the girl to Sama-
rang was there too. "Not so angry as many," he said to me, but
struck with a great awe and wonder at the "suddenness of men's
fate, which hangs over their heads like a cloud charged with thun-
der." He told me that when Dain Waris's body was uncovered at a
sign of Doramin's, he whom they often called the white lord's friend
was disclosed lying unchanged with his eyelids a little open as if
about to wake. Doramin leaned forward a little more, like one
looking for something fallen on the ground. His eyes searched the
body from its feet to its head, for the wound maybe. It was in the
forehead and small; and there was no word spoken while one of the
by-standers, stooping, took off the silver ring from the cold stiff
hand. In silence he held it up before Doramin. A murmur of dismay
and horror ran through the crowd at the sight of that familiar token.
The old nakhoda stared at it, and suddenly let out one great fierce
cry, deep from the chest, a roar of pain und fury, as mighty as the
bellow of a wounded bull, bringing great fear into men's hearts, by
the magnitude of his anger and his sorrow that could be plainly
discerned without words. There was a great stillness afterwards for
a space, while the body was being borne aside by four men. They
laid it down under a tree, and on the instant, with one long shriek,
all the women of the household began to wail together; they
mourned with shrill cries; the sun was setting, and in the intervals
of screamed lamentations the high sing-song voices of two old men
intoning the Koran chanted alone.
  'About this time Jim, leaning on a gun-carriage, looked at the
river, and turned his back on the house; and the girl, in the door-
way, panting as if she had run herself to a standstill, was looking at
him across the yard. Tamb' Itam stood not far from his master,
waiting patiendy for what might happen. All at once Jim, who
seemed to be lost in quiet thought, turned to him and said, "Time
to finish this."
  ' "Tuan?" said Tamb' Itam, advancing with alacrity. He did not
know what his master meant, but as soon as Jim made a movement
the girl started too and walked down into the open space. It seems
that no one else of the people of the house was in sight. She tottered
slightly, and about half-way down called out to Jim, who had appar-
ently resumed his peaceful contemplation of the river. He turned
round, setting his back against the gun. "Will you fight?" she cried.
"There is nothing to fight for," he said; "nothing is lost." Saying
this he made a step towards her. "Will you fly?" she cried again.
"There is no escape," he said, stopping short, and she stood still
also, silent, devouring him with her eyes. "And you shall go?" she
said slowly. He bent his head. "Ah!" she exclaimed, peering at him
as it were, "you are mad or false. Do you remember the night I
prayed you to leave me, and you said that you could not? That it
was impossible! Impossible! Do you remember you said you would
never leave me? Why? I asked you for no promise. You promised
unasked -- remember." "Enough, poor girl," he said. "I should not
be worth having."
  'Tamb' Itam said that while they were talking she would laugh
loud and senselessly like one under the visitation of God. His master
put his hands to his head. He was fully dressed as for every day,
but without a hat. She stopped laughing suddenly. "For the last
time," she cried menacindy, "will you defend yourself?" "Nothing
can touch me," he said in a last flicker of superb egoism. Tamb'
Itam saw her lean forward where she stood, open her arms, and run
at him swiftly. She flung herself upon his breast and clasped him
round the neck.
  ' "Ah! but I shall hold thee thus," she cried.... "Thou art
mine!"
  'She sobbed on his shoulder. The sky over Patusan was blood-
red, immense, streaming like an open vein. An enormous sun
nestled crimson amongst the tree-tops, and the forest below had a
black and forbidding face.
  'Tamb' Itam tells me that on that evening the aspect of the
heavens was angry and frightful. I may well believe it, for I know
that on that very day a cyclone passed within sixty miles of the
coast, though there was hardly more than a languid stir of air in the
place.
  'Suddenly Tamb' Itam saw Jim catch her arms, trying to
unclasp her hands. She hung on them with her head fallen back;
her hair touched the ground. "Come here!" his master called,
and Tamb' Itam helped to ease her down. It was difficult to
separate her fingers. Jim, bending over her, looked earnestly
upon her face, and all at once ran to the landing-stage. Tamb'
Itam followed him, but turning his head, he saw that she had
struggled up to her feet. She ran after them a few steps, then
fell down heavily on her knees. "Tuan! Tuan!" called Tamb'
Itam, "look back;" but Jim was already in a canoe, standing up
paddle in hand. He did not look back. Tamb' Itam had just time
to scramble in after him when the canoe floated clear. The girl
was then on her knees, with clasped hands, at the water-gate.
She remained thus for a time in a supplicating attitude before
she sprang up. "You are false!" she screamed out after Jim.
"Forgive me," he cried. "Never! Never!" she called back.
  'Tamb' Itam took the paddle from Jim's hands, it being unseemly
that he should sit while his lord paddled. When they reached the
other shore his master forbade him to come any farther; but Tamb'
Itam did follow him at a distance, walking up the slope to Doramin's
campong.
  'It was beginning to grow dark. Torches twinkled here and
there. Those they met seemed awestruck, and stood aside hastily
to let Jim pass. The wailing of women came from above. The
courtyard was full of armed Bugis with their followers, and of
Patusan people.
  'I do not know what this gathering really meant. Were these
preparations for war, or for vengeance, or to repulse a threatened
invasion? Many days elapsed before the people had ceased to look
out, quaking, for the return of the white men with long beards and
in rags, whose exact relation to their own white man they could
never understand. Even for those simple minds poor Jim remains
under a cloud.
  'Doramin, alone! immense and desolate, sat in his arm-chair with
the pair of flintlock pistols on his knees, faced by a armed throng.
When Jim appeared, at somebody's exclamation, all the heads
turned round together, and then the mass opened right and left,
and he walked up a lane of averted glances. Whispers followed him;
murmurs: "He has worked all the evil." "He hath a charm." . . .
He heard them -- perhaps!
  'When he came up into the light of torches the wailing of the
women ceased suddenly. Doramin did not lift his head, and Jim
stood silent before him for a time. Then he looked to the left, and
moved in that direction with measured steps. Dain Waris's mother
crouched at the head of the body, and the grey dishevelled hair
concealed her face. Jim came up slowly, looked at his dead friend,
lifting the sheet, than dropped it without a word. Slowly he walked
back.
  ' "He came! He came!" was running from lip to lip, making a
murmur to which he moved. "He hath taken it upon his own
head," a voice said aloud. He heard this and turned to the crowd.
"Yes. Upon my head." A few people recoiled. Jim waited awhile
before Doramin, and then said gently, "I am come in sorrow." He
waited again. "I am come ready and unarmed," he repeated.
  'The unwieldy old man, lowering his big forehead like an ox
under a yoke, made an effort to rise, clutching at the flintlock pistols
on his knees. From his throat came gurgling, choking, inhuman
sounds, and his two attendants helped him from behind. People
remarked that the ring which he had dropped on his lap fell and
rolled against the foot of the white man, and that poor Jim glanced
down at the talisman that had opened for him the door of fame,
love, and success within the wall of forests fringed with white foam,
within the coast that under the western sun looks like the very
stronghold of the night. Doramin, struggling to keep his feet, made
with his two supporters a swaying, tottering group; his little eyes
stared with an expression of mad pain, of rage, with a ferocious
glitter, which the bystanders noticed; and then, while Jim stood
stiffened and with bared head in the light of torches, looking him
straight in the face, he clung heavily with his left arm round the
neck of a bowed youth, and lifting deliberately his right, shot his
son's friend through the chest.
  'The crowd, which had fallen apart behind Jim as soon as Dora-
min had raised his hand, rushed tumultuously forward after the
shot. They say that the white man sent right and left at all those
faces a proud and unflinching glance. Then with his hand over his
lips he fell forward, dead.

  'And that's the end. He passes away under a cloud, inscrutable
at heart, forgotten, unforgiven, and excessively romantic. Not in
the wildest days of his boyish visions could he have seen the alluring
shape of such an extraordinary success! For it may very well be that
in the short moment of his last proud and unflinching glance, he
had beheld the face of that opportunity which, like an Eastern
bride, had come veiled to his side.
  'But we can see him, an obscure conqueror of fame, tearing him-
self out of the arms of a jealous love at the sign, at the call of his
exalted egoism. He goes away from a living woman to celebrate his
pitiless wedding with a shadowy ideal of conduct. Is he satisfied --
quite, now, I wonder? We ought to know. He is one of us -- and
have I not stood up once, like an evoked ghost, to answer for his
eternal constancy? Was I so very wrong after all? Now he is no
more, there are days when the reality of his existence comes to me
with an immense, with an overwhelming force; and yet upon my
honour there are moments too when he passes from my eyes like a
disembodied spirit astray amongst the passions of this earth, ready
to surrender himself faithfully to the claim of his own world of
shades.
  'Who knows? He is gone, inscrutable at heart, and the poor girl
is leading a sort of soundless, inert life in Stein's house. Stein has
aged greatly of late. He feels it himself, and says often that he is
"preparing to leave all this; preparing to leave . . ." while he waves
his hand sadly at his butterflies.'

September 1899 -- July 1900.